It’s only day two of the postseason in major league baseball but it’s already a win or go-home situation for one team north of the border. It’s the Seattle Mariners on the road as they travel to face the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 of their best-of-three American League Wild Card Series Saturday afternoon. In Game 1 of the series Friday afternoon, it was Seattle earning a 4-0 victory to draw first blood and move to the brink of advancing the AL Division Series. Can the Mariners close things out and punch their ticket to the next round or will the Blue Jays prevail to force a winner-take-all Game 3 on Sunday afternoon? We break it down for you.
Seattle jumped all over Toronto early, scoring three times in the top of the first, and cruised the rest of the way to earn the win in their first playoff game since 2001. The Mariners now have an opportunity to close things out here while knowing that if things go wrong, they’ll still have a shot in Game 3. On Friday, Eugenio Suarez (run, two RBI) and Cal Raleigh (run, two RBI) each had two hits in the victory for Seattle. Raleigh hit a two-run homer, his first of the postseason, in the opening inning as part of a three-run outburst that got the Mariners off on the right foot. Luis Castillo (1-0) earned the win as he threw 7.1 scoreless innings, allowing six hits with no walks and five strikeouts before departing.
Robbie Ray returns to Toronto to face his former team as he makes his first postseason start after 32 regular season turns for the Mariners this season. He was 12-12 with a 3.71 ER A, a 1.19 WHIP, 62 walks and 212 strikeouts over 189 innings of work on the year. One thing he was victimized by was the long ball as he surrendered 32 homers after giving up 33 last season. Ray took the loss in his last start, which came against the A’s at home Sunday. He threw 5.2 innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits with three walks and three strikeouts in a 10-3 Mariners defeat. In his last three starts, Ray is 0-2 with a 3.63 ERA, a 1.44 WHIP, eight walks and 18 strikeouts over 17.1 innings of work. Ray makes his fourth career start against the Blue Jays in this contest. He comes in 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA, a 0.944 WHIP, five walks and 24 strikeouts over 18 innings of work. Ray is 4-2 with a 2.49 ERA, a 0.862 WHIP, 16 walks and 89 strikeouts over 65 innings of work in 10 career starts at Rogers Centre.