Mariners ace Logan Gilbert can't blame bad luck for ALCS flops vs. Blue Jays

When Logan Gilbert took the mound for Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, he had two main objectives: redeem a difficult start in Game 2 and, in the process, pitch the Seattle Mariners to their first ever World Series.

Though the final result of Game 6 is yet to be determined, it's not too early to say that it won't be because of Gilbert if the Mariners do punch their ticket to the World Series on Sunday.

The right-hander simply failed to silence the Toronto Blue Jays' offense in Game 6. He had already put the Mariners in a 4-0 hole by the time Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stepped to the plate to lead off the fifth, and his solo homer closed a disappointing book: 4.0 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K.

The Mariners managed to break out the bats after Gilbert left Game 2 following the third inning, scoring 10 times to claim a 10-3 lead. As of this writing, they'll need to do so again to erase a 5-2 deficit in Game 6.

Either way, Gilbert will walk away from the ALCS having allowed eight runs in his two starts. Even if only six were earned, that still equals his total from his five previous outings between the end of the regular season and the Division Series.

The weirdness that Logan Gilbert encountered in the ALCS doesn't let him off the hook

If there is a valid defense of Gilbert, it's that he didn't exactly have things break his way in Game 2 or Game 6. Quite the contrary, in fact, as he ran into seemingly every possible bit of weirdness that a pitcher can experience.

He was the victim of an error by the normally sure-handed Josh Naylor in the first inning of Game 2, plus two more in the second inning of Game 6: a bobble in center field by Julio Rodríguez and a dropped ground ball by Eugenio Suárez.

From here, you can add in a swinging bunt by Isiah Kiner-Falefa that scored a run in that same error-filled second inning. And lest anyone forget, Gilbert was also on the receiving end of not one, but two missed third strikes by the home-plate umpire in the second inning of Game 2.

In the playoffs, any pitcher's margin for error is thin by default. When crud like that happens, it gets so thin that you need to resort to angstroms to measure it. As such, that Gilbert got a raw deal is very much part of his ALCS story.

And yet, to chalk Gilbert's two flops in this series up to bad luck is to let him off the hook for the excess mistakes he made. Some of the pitches he got hurt on are hard to watch, whether we're talking hanging sliders to George Springer and Alejandro Kirk in Game 2 or the hanging curve that Guerrero demolished in Game 6.

From an exit velocity perspective, Game 6 belongs far from Gilbert's personal highlight reel. By the time Dan Wilson came out to get him, he had allowed six of the seven hardest-hit balls of the game. The hardest was a 116 mph shot by Guerrero that saw Suárez bail out his pitcher with a nifty diving play.

After winning Game 5 and grabbing a 3-2 lead in the series, the Mariners only need to win one more game to make sure Gilbert has a shot at redemption in the World Series. And he'll certainly deserve it, as the 2024 All-Star had reclaimed his spot as the Mariners' best starting pitcher after Bryan Woo went down with a pec injury in September.

For now, though, the World Series is something the Mariners are still very much fighting for. And to this end, it hasn't helped that Gilbert didn't land as many punches as the Mariners could have expected.