Mariners’ Cal Raleigh Explains Disastrous Choice That Led To George Springer Blast

It’s going to take a lot longer than a day for the Seattle Mariners to recover from that painful loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

The Mariners, who have been in Major League Baseball since 1977, were eight outs away from their first-ever World Series title. But after Seattle opted to leave its closer, Andrés Muñoz, in the bullpen for later in the game, setup man Eduard Bazardo allowed a three-run blast to George Springer, lifting the Blue Jays to a 4-3 victory.

The decision to go with Bazardo over Muñoz has drawn all sorts of scrutiny, and rightfully so. But equally questionable was the choice to not only pitch to Springer, but to throw him back-to-back sinkers to open the at-bat.

Mariners superstar catcher Cal Raleigh, who called for those sinkers, attempted to explain why Springer got a 96-mph offering he could handle right down the pipe with the season on the line.

“It (had) been working all night, the sinker in, it just leaked back to the heart, and he put a good swing on it,” Raleigh said, per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times. “It’s just something maybe you go back and look at, maybe you should have went with another pitch. It was a tough spot to be in.”

There was a legitimate argument to be made that Springer shouldn’t have been pitched to at all. He’s now tied for third on the all-time postseason home run list at 23, behind only Manny Ramírez (29) and former teammate Jose Altuve (27). He’d also faced Bazardo twice already in the series, so he knew exactly what that sinker would look like and had a plan for attacking it.

If he was going to be pitched to at all, he certainly shouldn’t have been thrown a thigh-high sinker, though. And ahead 1-0 in the count after another sinker, it’s hard to believe he was sitting on anything else.

But with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lurking two batters later, the Mariners decided to roll the dice. And because baseball is a brutally unforgiving adversary, they got burned in a way that’s going to cause pain for many years to come.

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