Mariners beat Tigers in a game for the ages

Jorge Polanco (YouTube)

We now know what team will face the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. The answer is the Seattle Mariners.

On Friday night at T-Mobile in Seattle, Washington, the Mariners defeated the Detroit Tigers 3-2 in 15 innings. With the win, the Mariners beat the Tigers three games to two in the best out of five American League Divisional Series.

According to Jace Evans of USA Today, this was the longest winner-take-all game in terms of innings in Major League Baseball postseason history, and the sixth longest playoff game ever. Four games have gone to 18 innings with the Mariners being involved in one of those contests. In game three of the 2022 American League Divisional Series, the Houston Astros beat the Mariners 1-0.

What we saw from both the Tigers and Mariners on Friday was clutch pitching. Detroit and Seattle were unable to score in seven consecutive innings from the seventh to 14th innings. When it was all said and done, the Mariners hero was Jorge Polanco of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, who had a game-winning bases loaded RBI single that scored J.P. Crawford of Long Beach, California.

This is the fourth time in franchise history that the Mariners have been to the American League Championship Series. They previously lost in six games to the Cleveland Indians in 1995, in six games to the New York Yankees in 2000, and in five games to the Yankees in 2001. Game one of the 2025 American League Championship Series will be in Toronto on Sunday night.