Dan Wilson learns what frustrated Mariners fans already knew about Gabe Speier

October baseball is a series of pressure-cooker choices, and for 24 hours in Seattle the conversation was about one: why the Seattle Mariners let George Kirby face Kerry Carpenter with Game 1 of the ALDS teetering. Fans didn’t need spreadsheets to read the risk — Carpenter had already punished Kirby repeatedly throughout his career, and the moment begged for a different look. When the ball cleared the wall for a go-ahead homer, it felt less like a plot twist and more like a preventable sequel.

Game 2 arrived with the same actors and a familiar script beginning to form. Except this time with Luis Castillo, who was sharp but approaching the second trip through with Carpenter coming up, the exact pocket where power bats can feast on starters’ patterns. Instead of trusting a two-seamer with arm-side run to sneak past a lefty who hunts velocity up, Dan Wilson grabbed the wheel. With two outs and two on in the fifth and the inning hanging in the balance, he went to the left-on-left answer fans had been clamoring for: Gabe Speier. One at-bat later, Speier sent Carpenter walking back to the dugout, the inning was over, and T-Mobile Park finally exhaled.

Dan Wilson fixes the Game 1 mistake with a bold Mariners bullpen call

This is what “learning in October” looks like. The move wasn’t about yanking Castillo early; it was about winning the matchup in front of you. Carpenter had already entered the series with a track record against Kirby that set off alarms (4-for-8 with four homers before Game 1), and he added another blast when given the chance. Wilson’s adjustment in Game 2 acknowledged two realities: the second-time-through tax on starters against elite bats, and Speier’s specific utility against left-handed batters.

Speier rewarded the trust, punching out Carpenter to hold the one-run lead and hand the dugout a surge of momentum.

There’s a broader message in Wilson’s pivot. Postseason managing isn’t a referendum on faith in starters; it’s an allocation game. You don’t wait for trouble to arrive, you meet it at the threshold with your best counter. Speier doesn’t have to be a one-batter cameo artist, and in this case, he wasn’t. But in this matchup he’s the right key for the most stubborn lock if necessary. Use him to neutralize the exact bat that can flip a game, and you also cascade cleaner lanes for the rest of the bullpen to finish the night on their terms.