Mariners have wrongs to right to keep World Series dream alive in ALCS Game 7

As has been the case throughout the near five decades of Seattle Mariners baseball, they yet again have made things difficult for themselves. Coming off a dramatic late comeback win in Game 5 which seemed to swing momentum back in their favor, the M's managed to undo this with objectively and arguably their worst collective performance of the entire season in Game 6.

On the verge of finally winning an AL Pennant and advancing to their first ever World Series, the Mariners came up flat and lost 6-2 to the Blue Jays on Sunday evening. Here is a look at four wrongs the M's must right, in order to win the first Game 7 in franchise history:

4 wrongs the Mariners must right to keep World Series dream alive in ALCS Game 7

1) George Kirby must atone for Game 3

There are several reasons for Mariners fans to be nervous about George Kirby taking the ball for Game 7 in Toronto. First, this has been his toughest season in four years of Major League action, highlighted by a career-high 4.21 ERA and career-lows of a 90 ERA+ and a 0.8 bWAR.

In fairness to Kirby, he was compromised by beginning the season on the Injured List with right shoulder inflammation. However, even after returning in late May he was never able to put things together consistently, with this up-and-down form continuing into the playoffs.

The 27-year-old did well in two starts versus the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS, allowing just three runs and producing 14 strikeouts while only issuing one free pass in 10 combined innings. Then he undid all this good work with a disastrous outing against the Blue Jays in Game 3 of the ALCS, with his eight earned runs tying for the most by a starting pitcher in a playoff game.

This will be Kirby's first ever road start in the playoffs, and he hasn't exactly been great on his travels this season, with a 5.16 ERA in 11 starts. He did come through though when he made the only relief appearance of his career in the ninth inning of the Mariners' series-clinching 10-9 wild card road win over the Blue Jays back in 2022, allowing no hits or runs.

2) New-look offense with Julio up top has to click

After the Mariners lost 8-2 in Game 4 to tie this ALCS at 2-2, we wrote about how it was finally time for manager Dan Wilson to make one key change to keep them from completely losing grip on the series: take Randy Arozarena out of the leadoff spot, at the very least against righties.

Wilson did just that, moving Arozarena down to fifth and placing Julio Rodríguez in the leadoff spot. However, it's fair to say things haven't been much (if any) better for Rodríguez in his two games at the top of the lineup. He's gone a combined 0-for-7, striking out four times and only managing one walk.

The Mariners clearly need to find a way to click with Rodríguez leading the way, although we wouldn't necessarily count on him being the one to galvanize the offense. As Andy Johnson wrote about towards the end of August, the leadoff spot has been a curse for the team pretty much all season.

This is more about the Mariners offense as a whole playing up to their potential, with a .212 batting average and .689 OPS in 11 playoff games just not cutting it. This is a loaded lineup which can destroy any pitcher on any day, and that day now has to be Monday — otherwise, this team will be facing the prospect of the most painful offseason in franchise history.

3) Mariners simply can't give Blue Jays as much slack as in Game 6

Talent and effort combined is often the key formula for helping a team put themselves in position to win a game, but it isn't infallible. It can be undone by untimely mistakes and a lack of focus, with this fate befalling the Mariners during this ALCS versus the Blue Jays, particularly in Games 4 and 6.

Game 4 saw Gabe Speier allow a bases-loaded walk to increase the Blue Jays' lead to 3-1 in the top of the third, while Leo Rivas was inexcusably picked off a first base in the bottom of the inning while Cal Raleigh was at the plate. Throw in a wild pitch by Matt Brash an inning later to make it 5-1 to the visitors and it all added up to a miserable day for the Mariners in what was ultimately a 8-2 loss.

Fast forward to Game 6 on Sunday in Toronto and, unfortunately for Mariners fans, it was more of the same. A couple of errors by Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez in the second inning set the stage for two Blue Jays runs, while a throwing error by Raleigh in the seventh inning resulted in the host team scoring their sixth run of the game.

Just as bad if not worse than the three errors were the three GIDP's by the Mariners, including successive bases-loaded, one-out situations in the third and fourth innings where they ended up effectively sabotaging themselves and getting nothing. Now more than ever, this team cannot afford to be so sloppy with mistakes and a lack of focus.

4) Dan Wilson must push the right buttons at the right time

The job of a Major League manager can be a thankless task, with their role often being undervalued when things go right, but also having every single mistake put under the magnifying glass when it all goes wrong. For Dan Wilson in particular, we really believe he's gotten far too much criticism at times this season and often times entirely unnecessary, especially when you consider this is his first full season in the role.

Versus the Tigers in the previous round it was often noted about how A.J. Hinch was the better manager and with more experience, but when it came to the winner-takes-all Game 5, Wilson outcoached him. The Mariners will obviously need more of the same in a similar scenario against John Schneider.

Interestingly, Schneider also seems to often be underappreciated and disrespected, but of course this is of no interest to Mariners fans who need Wilson to manage the game of his life on Monday evening. This will include pushing all the right buttons at the right time, just as he did in Game 5 of the ALDS.

One of the biggest decisions Wilson will face is in knowing when to utilize Bryan Woo out of the bullpen, especially when considering the aforementioned concerns about Kirby. The Mariners cannot afford to leave Kirby in too long if things start to go wrong for him, and we anticipate Wilson being aggressive with Woo (and with the bullpen in general) with a season on the line like never before.