2022 MLB Playoffs: Mariners stun Blue Jays with Game 2 comeback

By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

For four innings, Game 2 of the Wild-Card Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners trended in a way that many people could’ve seen coming.

After a dominant performance from Seattle’s Luis Castillo in Game 1, Toronto’s Cy Young candidate, Kevin Gausman, appeared to be returning the favor in Game 2. Meanwhile, Robbie Ray — in a return to his old stomping grounds — was getting pummeled. On top of facing his former team in unfriendly territory, Ray’s arsenal from the left side appeared to play right into the right-handed power of the Jays lineup.

Teoscar Hernandez homered off Ray twice, the Blue Jays were rolling, and Rogers Centre was rocking. 

After the starters were out, though? It was pure chaos, just as it has been all season for the drought-busting Mariners. 

Down 8-1 after five innings, Seattle completed a historic comeback to defeat Toronto 10-9 and advance to the ALDS, leaving the Rogers Centre crowd of 47,000-plus in stunned silence. 

What went right for the Mariners

It’s ridiculous to say this was business as usual when a team completes a comeback of this magnitude in this context, but the 2022 Mariners have had so many ridiculous comebacks and close victories that a result such as this somehow doesn’t feel all that shocking. 

The box score can’t possibly tell the whole story of this game. Paul Sewald struggled mightily in his appearance, but the rest of the Mariners bullpen picked him up after that, keeping Toronto within striking distance as the offense clawed its way back into the game. 

The stars on offense were Cal Raleigh and Adam Frazier, with three hits apiece, including Raleigh’s double and Frazier’s RBI double that gave the Mariners a 10-9 lead in the ninth.

The quintessential Mariners chaos came earlier, though, courtesy of JP Crawford’s base hit that scored three runs due to a scary collision in the outfield between Bo Bichette and George Springer. Springer unfortunately had to leave the game, but he raised his arms to pump up the crowd as he exited, so here’s hoping the injury is nothing serious. 

If not for the exact landing spot of Crawford’s hit, it might’ve scored only two runs, and Toronto might’ve maintained the lead. Instead, the collision allowed Frazier to come all the way around from first base to tie the game.

What went wrong for the Blue Jays

Everything after Kevin Gausman left the game. 

Gausman was marvelous, essentially ditching the slider from his three-pitch mix and instead attacking ruthlessly with his fastball-splitter combo. He threw his signature splitter 45 times — the most he had in any start this season — to great effect. Mariners hitters swung and missed at 11 splitters and failed to produce any hard contact against it when they did connect. 

However, while runs were difficult to come by, Seattle managed to push Gausman’s pitch count into the 90s by the sixth inning, forcing Toronto to turn the game over to a bullpen unit that has always looked like the team’s weakest link.

Still, one would hope that any postseason bullpen would be able to hold on to a seven-run lead with 12 outs to go in an elimination game. That Toronto’s pen ended up being the team’s downfall is not especially surprising, but the degree of the collapse was jarring to watch.

Key moment of the game

Gausman was at 95 pitches in the sixth, but allowing him to finish the inning seemed like a reasonable ask, considering the season he has had, how dynamite he’d been all game and the 8-1 lead. 

Instead, manager John Schneider preferred Tim Mayza over Gausman facing Carlos Santana for a third time, likely because Santana had launched a double to center off Gausman earlier in the game.

Mayza spiked a fastball, which allowed Ty France to score from third. That made it 8-2. Two pitches later, Santana sent a ball over the left-field wall for a three-run homer that cut the Blue Jays’ lead to three. 

There was plenty more comeback to come after that, but that one decision backfiring breathed serious life into the Mariners dugout that might never have arrived had Gausman gotten out of the jam himself. 

What happens next

The magical Mariners ride continues Tuesday, as Seattle heads to Houston — the Mariners’ personal house of horrors over the past half-decade — where they will try to continue to shock the world. 

Avoiding a wild-card Game 3 puts Seattle in position to send Logan Gilbert out for Game 1 of the ALDS before likely giving the ball back to Castillo for Game 2, which lines up the Mariners’ pitching about as well as they could hope for against an intimidating Astros offense. 

Even more importantly, this series victory guarantees a return of postseason baseball to Seattle for at least one game, as Game 3 against Houston will take place Saturday at T-Mobile Park. 

At this point, doubt the Mariners at your own peril. If there is a team of destiny in this postseason field, it’s certainly looking like them. 

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.