TORONTO — Being sleepless in Seattle won out over winding up tired in Toronto.
After celebrating their 3-2, 15-inning home win over the sixth-seeded Detroit Tigers on Friday night in the deciding fifth game of their American League Division Series, the second-seeded Seattle Mariners hung around a while longer before heading to Canada for a late Saturday arrival ahead of their AL Championship Series matchup with the top-seeded Toronto Blue Jays.
“Our guys will be ready,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “We’ll get there tonight, get some rest, and we’ll be ready to go.”
AL West Division champion Seattle is in the ALCS for the fourth time overall but the first time since 2001. The best-of-seven series begins Sunday night at Rogers Centre.
After eliminating the fourth-seeded New York Yankees with a Game 4 win in their ALDS on Wednesday night, AL East champion Toronto was free to relax Friday. Blue Jays outfielders Davis Schneider and Myles Straw went out together to a Toronto bar to see who’d they face in the team’s eighth trip to the ALCS but first since 2016.
“Would have liked to have got out a little bit sooner, but we had a good night,” Straw said of the late finish for a Detroit-Seattle matchup that took 4 hours, 58 minutes and set the MLB record for longest winner-take-all postseason game.
Seattle used three starting pitchers in Friday’s win over Detroit, with Luis Castillo and Logan Gilbert both entering in relief. That leaves right-hander Bryce Miller, who started Wednesday, to take the mound Sunday on three days’ rest.
“It’s super cool,” Miller said. “I’m fired up.
Miller threw 55 pitches in Game 4, allowing two runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings.
“We’ll take him as far as he can go,” Wilson said.
Toronto’s scheduled starter is right-hander Kevin Gausman, who hasn’t pitched since giving up one run and four hits in 5 2/3 innings in Toronto’s ALDS opener on Oct. 4. Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Gausman’s consistency and calm made him the right choice.
“There’s something about his demeanor, just kind of his presence every day, where the day he’s pitching everybody feels a little bit more confident going into it,” Schneider said.
Seattle, the only current MLB team to never appear in the World Series, has won two or fewer games in three previous ALCS trips, losing once to the Cleveland Indians (1995) and twice to the Yankees (2000, 2001). The 2001 Mariners fell short after tying the MLB record for regular-season wins with 116, which remains the AL mark.
Toronto, which lost the ALCS to the Kansas City Royals in 2015 and to Cleveland in 2016, won four of six meetings with the Mariners during the regular season, losing two of three at home in April and sweeping a three-game series in Seattle from May 9-11. The teams haven’t faced each other since.
“It’s definitely a fun city,” Mariners star Cal Raleigh said of Toronto. “It’s a nice stadium, and they’re a good team. Always look forward to the challenge of playing them. Just always fun.”
After doing a good job of keeping New York’s Aaron Judge in check during the previous round, Toronto’s pitchers now face the job of containing Raleigh. The switch-hitting catcher had 60 home runs during the regular season and hit one more in the ALDS.
Raleigh has seven home runs in 11 regular-season games north of the border and went 4-for-8 with a homer in Seattle’s sweep of Toronto in a 2022 ALWCS.
“What a season he’s had, and what a great switch-hitter at such a hard position to hit,” Gausman said of Raleigh. “To catch as many games as he has, what a season he’s put together.
“I also feel confident with myself that I can go out and get him out. I’ve gotten him out before, so now it’s just about mixing up pitches and trying to keep him off balance.”
Schneider said rookie Trey Yesavage, who set a Blue Jays postseason record by striking out 11 batters in 5 1/3 innings in Game 2 against the Yankees, is “a definite possibility” to start the second ALCS game.
Yesavage rose through four minor league levels this season before joining the Blue Jays and going 1-0 in three September starts.
Yesavage walked out to the bullpen during Game 4 on Wednesday, but Schneider acknowledged Saturday that he didn’t intend to use him in that game.
Yesavage struck out 160 batters in 98 innings in the minors. Including his ALDS start, he has 27 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings in the majors.
On the injury front, Schneider said shortstop Bo Bichette ran the bases Saturday, the first time he’s done that since spraining his left knee last month. The two-time AL hits leader and MLB All-Star was injured in a Sept. 6 collision with Yankees catcher Austin Wells and hasn’t played since.
“I don’t want to say he’s our last decision, but he’s one of them,” Schneider said. “Obviously you want his bat in the lineup.”
Bichette has been taking swings against teammates Chris Bassitt and Max Scherzer in recent days.
Said Schneider: “A lot of swings, looked pretty good.”