Kyle Seager’s Role Last Night

The ninth innings last night was pretty exciting! The Mariners had a lot of heroes in that inning: Montero for the double, Jaso for the sac fly, or even Kawasaki for the speed to score. However, I think that the true hero in that inning was Kyle Seager.

Just a couple of days ago, Bryant was singing Seager’s praises. Last night, you really saw the influence of Kyle Seager in the bottom of the ninth. Yes, he laid down the bunt which was important, but in reality, just about anyone on the team should have been able to execute that sacrifice. The true heroicness of Seager laid in his presence alone.

Think back to the ninth inning. At one point, the Mariners had runners on first and second with no outs, and Montero was at the plate with a 2-0 count. This would have been a perfect situation to intentionally walk Montero. A great hitter was at the plate, he was in a hitter’s count, it would have set up a double play, it would have brought Kyle Seager to the plate, and a lefty was ready in the bullpen which would have created an idea lefty on lefty matchup. Nevertheless, Detroit chose to pitch to Montero who subsequently hit a double off the wall which brought in the tying run, and came around to score himself to win the game.

The fact that Tiger Manager, Jim Leyland, who I believe is one of the greatest managers in baseball right now, chose to pitch to the most dangerous bat in the Mariner’s lineup instead of a second year player on deck speaks testaments to the respect they had for Kyle Seager.

I believe that his presence alone was a huge contributor to Seattle’s win last night, and he should be given more recognition for the role he played in the victory. If it had not been for the respect the Tigers had for Seager, Montero would have likely been put on base and the rest of the inning could have gone very differently.