Not much has separated the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers over the first two games of the American League Division Series.
Both clubs won a game with a 3-2 final score, and the tightness of series figures to continue when the Mariners battle the Tigers in Game 3 on Tuesday in Detroit.
The Tigers won the series opener in 11 innings while Seattle followed up with its win to avoid a 0-2 hole.
“We got the split. We feel pretty good about it,” said Jorge Polanco, who hit two solo homers for the Mariners in Game 2. “It is an away game, and we’re just going to go out there, trying to stay focused, trying to compete and trying to win.”
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch saw a missed opportunity but also is aware his club has to move on.
“I think our guys will enjoy being back in Detroit, put on the English D, the white unis,” Hinch said. “The crowd should be electric, and we’re playing for potentially the series and the momentum in the series.”
Detroit had just three hits in the Game 2 loss when Polanco’s power and Julio Rodriguez’s tiebreaking double in the eighth equated to a Seattle victory.
Rodriguez is 4-for-9 with a homer and three RBIs in the series and he’s expecting a chorus of jeers when he takes the field in Detroit.
“I know they’re not going to like us,” Rodriguez said. “They’re going to root for their team. They’re going to root for the Tigers, just like … our fans were rooting for us.
“That’s a mindset, go out there and play baseball. Just try to score runs and limit them to not score runs and win the ball game.”
Seattle could be missing one of its big bats on Tuesday.
Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor wasn’t in Detroit on Monday after leaving the team to travel to Arizona, where his wife is due to give birth.
Seattle doesn’t know whether Naylor will be available for Games 3 and 4.
“It’s a personal matter and we will know more (Tuesday),” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.
Naylor is 0-for-8 in the series and committed an eighth-inning error in Game 2 that helped the Tigers erase a 2-0 deficit.
Jack Flaherty of the Tigers will oppose Logan Gilbert of the Mariners in a battle of right-handers in Game 3.
This will be Flaherty’s second outing of the postseason. He received a no-decision in Game 3 of the AL wild-card series Thursday against the Cleveland Guardians, when he allowed one run and three hits over 4 2/3 innings of a 6-3 victory.
Overall, Flaherty is 2-5 with a 5.05 ERA in 11 career playoff appearances (10 starts).
Flaherty, 29, is 2-0 with a 4.22 ERA in four career starts against Seattle. He received a no-decision against the Mariners on July 13 when he gave up two runs and four hits over five innings.
“Everybody at this point is a really good team,” Flaherty said when asked about the Seattle lineup. “They have a full roster top to bottom, full lineup top to bottom of guys that are really good and guys that they even made trades for and brought over.
“So it’s a good team. At the end of the day, it comes to executing pitches, but you’ve got a lot of respect for guys over there and how good some of those guys are.”
Gilbert, 28, is making his second career postseason start. He gave up three runs and five hits over 5 1/3 innings in no-decision against the Houston Astros in the 2022 ALDS.
Gilbert is 1-2 with a 3.28 ERA in five career starts against Detroit. He was 0-1 with a 2.61 ERA in two starts against the Tigers this season.
–Field Level Media
