Unsung heroes of Mariners Game 2 win: 3 middle relievers re-set staff for ALCS

Eduard Bazardo stood so tall inside the Mariners dugout, someone should have handed him a trident.

But he doesn’t hit home runs. That’s the act that gets M’s their celebration stick with three points on the end to parade around with inside the dugout.

Bazardo pitches. Monday in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, he pitched like he never had — and like the Mariners never needed him to — before.

When he stranded a Toronto runner at second base to end the fifth inning, his second of two scoreless frames that settled Seattle and this wild game, the 30-year-old right-hander’s teammates swarmed the middle reliever in the middle of the Mariners dugout.

Manager Dan Wilson hugged Bazardo. All-Star center fielder Julio Rodriguez hugged him twice.

Then the superstar showed Bazardo an elaborate hand-shake celebration. It ended with Rodriguez pantomiming a cowboy lasso rope toss then body turn. Bazardo and Rodriguez laughed. Bazardo had decisively corralled the Blue Jays. He sent the Mariners off from a 3-3 tie to a 10-3 victory and a 2-0 ALCS lead heading back to Seattle for the next three games.

“Yeah, it’s very emotional. I’m very grateful for the opportunity that Dan gave us,” Bazardo said, in his first career postseason press conference on a podium in front of the brightest lights of his sport.

“Obviously, the game (versus) Detroit (15 innings Friday) was a little long, longer than we needed to, but we’re in the postseason. We’re all here trying to do the most we can to win.

“And the end goal is to get to the World Series.”

Thanks to what he, Carlos Vargas and Emerson Hancock did after ineffective starter Logan Gilbert Monday, the Mariners are two wins away from their first World Series.

In three innings of Game 2, Gilbert gave back all of the 3-0 lead Rodriguez had given him and the M’s with his three-run home run three batters into the game.

Bazardo entered for the bottom of the fourth, with the game tied at 3. The Blue Jays had their fans inside packed Rogers Centre roaring on Canada’s Thanksgiving Day.

It was the biggest spot yet for the former international free agent signed out his native Venezuela by Boston in 2014, who debuted in the majors for the Red Sox seven years after he signed. He pitched in 23 games for the Mariners last season, just nine in 2023.

But this season he earned Wilson’s increasing trust by the month to pitch in more meaningful situations.

Monday, Bazardo had the Blue Jays who had been ripping Gilbert with line drives all over Rogers Centre flailing.

“That is the most important from us to the bullpen, try to keep attacking the hitters,” Bazardo said.

Four of the seven Jays that faced Bazardo produced topped choppers that didn’t get past the pitcher’s mound.

Bazardo and catcher Cal Raleigh fielded them all and threw to Josh Naylor at first base for outs.

“Bazardo was huge,” Raleigh said. “I mean, that’s such a big two innings from him, going through the heart of the order.

“So big.”

Carlos Vargas, Emerson Hancock shine

Vargas lost Game 1 of the division series when the Tigers got him in extra innings last week. Detroit also got two runs off him in one inning of Seattle’s Game 4 loss to the Tigers in the ALDS.

Yet Vargas helped win Game 2 of this ALCS by matching Bazardo’s two scoreless innings Monday. He didn’t allow a hit, walked one and struck out one.

“And Vargas, too,” Raleigh said. “He came in and really shut them down.

“It was a big, big four innings from those guys. They did an awesome job.”

When Hancock did the same thing with a scoreless eighth and ninth to finish off the win, he, Vargas and Bazardo did more than push Seattle’s lead in the series to 2-0.

They — and Bryce Miller’s legendary start Sunday in Seattle’s Game 1 win here — re-set Seattle’s pitching staff for the rest of the ALCS.

“When you’ve got a guy like ‘Vargy’ who’s able to come in and throw 98, 99 miles an hour, that’s a plus,” Wilson said. “He gave us two strong innings and turned it over to Emerson and another two strong innings.

“Just an excellent job by the bullpen tonight. You can’t ask for more than that, and these guys really delivered and gave us some strong innings.”

This was the first time since Sept. 24, the night they clinched their first AL West title since 2001 by running away from the woeful Colorado Rockies, that the Mariners won a game without high-leverage relievers Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and All-Star closer Andres Munoz pitching.

“The off day (Tuesday) is huge,” Gilbert said, before the Mariners’ expected arrival home of around 1 a.m. Tuesday before rested George Kirby starts Game 3 Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park. “Bryce really did that, and set the table with what he did (Sunday).

“And then, yeah, getting ‘Mooney’ a break is a big deal. The offense kind of did that.

“A lot of guys stepping up and re-setting the table, with the off day.”

“Can’t let up”

Now the Mariners are two wins away from their first World Series.

“You can’t let up,” Gilbert said. “Two wins here in Toronto, that’s huge. But we are a long ways away from the World Series.

“I think we have to approach it that way. We love playing in Seattle, in front of our fans. Having a breather, I think, is going to be huge. But it’s not like we’re there yet.

“We have two more, huge ones to get.”