SEATTLE — After 15 innings Friday night at T-Mobile Park, there was no rest for the winners.
Well, not much anyway. Just the reward of at least four more games this year and a trip to Toronto for the American League Championship Series that starts Sunday night.
Jorge Polanco hit a game-ending single in the 15th, and the second-seeded Seattle Mariners oulasted the sixth-seeded Detroit Tigers for a 3-2 victory in the longest winner-take-all postseason game in Major League Baseball history.
With one out and the bases loaded, Polanco drove in J.P. Crawford with a liner to right on a full-count changeup from Tommy Kahnle. Crawford held his arms in the air as he touched home plate while the Mariners poured out of the dugout to celebrate in front of a frenzied crowd of 47,025.
Crawford hit a leadoff single, Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Julio Rodríguez was intentionally walked before Polanco’s big swing on the 472nd pitch of an epic Game 5 that clocked in at 4 hours, 58 minutes.