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There was no home cooking waiting Tuesday night back in Detroit in game three of the ALDS.
The Tigers still have not won a home game since Sept. 6 and now find their season on the brink after a late rally came up short in an 8-4 loss to the Mariners.
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Here are my takeaways:
1. Depth of Seattle lineup finally on display
(Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images) –>
This is what the Mariners front office envisioned when it bolstered its lineup at the deadline.
The depth of this offense is what really separates it from previous iterations of Seattle teams. The Mariners had eight different players with at least 100 plate appearances this year who hit at least 10% better than league average (110 OPS+), tied for the most in the majors. That’s not including Eugenio Suarez, who finished the year with 49 homers — the fifth most in MLB — and a 126 OPS+ but was unable to replicate his first-half success in Arizona after getting traded to Seattle.
Still, that power is in there, and it can come in waves. Perhaps Tuesday’s 422-foot blast off Jack Flaherty was a sign of things to come.
Up and down the lineup, a Mariners offense that relied almost exclusively on Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh and Jorge Polanco through the first two games of the ALDS got plenty more contributions. J.P Crawford homered and started the scoring with a single. Randy Arozarena hit an RBI single. And Raleigh got his first RBI of the series. Josh Naylor had a deep drive that was caught but would have been a home run in 11 parks, including T-Mobile. There’s a lot of players who can hurt you here.
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2. Reminders of Detroit’s dismal finish
The Tigers made it to this point despite losing 22 of their final 31 regular season games. They’re one of only two teams (along with the 2000 Yankees) to go 3-13 in their final 16 games and make the postseason.
Needless to say…it had not been going well. And Tuesday’s blunders were a reminder of that late-season tumble.
The Mariners’ first run scored Tuesday when Crawford flared a single into shallow left field. Victor Robles wasn’t going to go home…until presented the opportunity. Riley Greene threw home, Zach McKinstry didn’t cut it off, and the ball trickled through catcher Dillon Dingler’s legs. Robles took off and beat the throw from Jack Flaherty, who was backing up.
The Mariners added an insurance run in the eighth after Kerry Carpenter dropped a fly ball in right field. In addition to the offensive outage for most of the night and a short start from Flaherty — the Tigers may come to regret their lack of impact moves at the deadline — the defense did not help.
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3. The stars — and starters — are paying off … for one side
The Mariners’ rotation dealt with injuries throughout the year that prevented that unit from being the indomitable force many expected to see, but Seattle’s starters are healthy at the right time and giving them an ALDS edge.
George Kirby, Luis Castillo and Logan Gilbert have combined to allow three runs in 15.2 innings of work this series after Gilbert’s six innings of one-run ball in Game 3 put the Mariners one win away from advancing.
Meanwhile, the Mariners’ offensive stars are putting on a show. Raleigh is 6-for-13 in the ALDS and put the finishing touches on Tuesday’s onslaught with his first home run of the playoffs — and 61st of 2025. (Speaking of…we’ll get back to that later). Rodriguez, meanwhile, was the star of Game 2.
The same can’t be said on the other side. Riley Greene is 2-for-12 without an RBI this series. Carpenter had the big home run in Game 1, but it’s his only hit of the series. And after Tarik Skubal, this rotation lacks the same caliber of arms that the Mariners possess.
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4. Late rally not enough
Spencer Torkelson has had some big moments the last two games and tried to get a rally started in the ninth, but unlike his two-run double in Game 2, this one was too little too late.
The hole the Tigers dug themselves was too deep, and the Mariners are now just one win away from advancing to the ALCS for the first time since 2001.
That year, the Mariners also dropped the first game of the series before coming back to advance.
4 ½ Dump here
There’s no way…
When Raleigh continued to pour it on for the Mariners with his homer in the ninth — his 61st of the season — the ball bounced into the visiting bullpen and up into the stands. In a sea of white and blue and orange, a man in Mariners green reached out and grabbed it.
What did his shirt read? “Dump here. 61.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.
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