#alds

I don't post a lot about sports on here even though I love them, but this weekend the Seattle Mariners provided some of the most emotional baseball I've seen in my lifetime. And I'll go on record saying baseball is mostly boring as hell and a 162 game season is long enough to become uninterested.

But the Mariners are different. They are the only team in baseball to have never played in a World Series, let alone win one. For a team that's had incredible talent (they had 4 Hall of Famers on their roster at one point), they've just never put it all together in one magical season. It's just been a cavalcade of bad baseball, silly losses or excruciating gut punches that have kept them from being anywhere close to the top. Up until 2022, they had the longest playoff drought in American professional sports, having not seen the postseason since 2001.

This year marks only the 6th time they've been to the playoffs in the franchise's 48 seasons. They won their division for the first time since 2001, and hosted just their second home playoff game since the same season.

To put it plainly, this team doesn't go the playoffs a lot, and they don't win a lot. On Saturday night, they lost the first of their best-of-five series game to Detroit, 3-2, in an 11 inning thriller.

Which brings me to last night and why this man is crying because of a baseball team. Down 0-1 in the series and facing almost certain elimination because Detroit had their best pitcher (and the best pitcher in baseball for that matter) on the mound, and Games 3 and 4 would be in Detroit. Go down 0-2 and you're toast, essentially.

The unthinkable happens. The Mariners score two on the Tigers' ace and largely held their hitters to nothing...until the 8th inning. Detroit scores twice to tie it, 2-2, and looks poised to send this to extra innings again. Mariners fans everywhere know this familiar feeling.

We blew it. It's over. So much for the playoffs. We suck. We'll never get this close again. It was a nice run while we had it. Same ole Mariners.

And then steps in your 24-year old outfielder, Julio Rodriguez, who was barely even alive the last time the Mariners won a home playoff game. He rips a double down the left field line, scoring Cal Raleigh from 2nd base. The place went absolutely bonkers.

The game wasn't even over yet. We still had an inning left to play. But this fan knew what he just witnessed. Moments like this don't happen a lot for Mariners fans. We take ours at face value.

We're did it and we're moving forward to the ALDS!!! Congratulations 🎊 to the NY Yankees!!!! Spectacular performance!!! You guys deserve this so much!!! And I don't have to stop watching baseball yet!! Yippee!!🎉🎊🎆🎇✨️⚾️

LET'S GO, YANKEES!!!!!

FINAL: Toronto Blue Jays 5, New York Yankees 2.

▪️ Toronto Blue Jays are going to the ALCS.

Not dead yet

Now is not the time to lament the millions of runners the Detroit Tigers left unredeemed on the bases in the three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians (15 in the second game alone).

Let's dwell, instead, on the runners they drove home: enough to send the Tigers - albeit on wobbly wheels - to the American League Division Series, in which they'll face the mighty Mariners of Seattle.

The Mariners, who won 90 games in the regular season, are likely to be a stiffer opponent than the Guardians. However, since it's a five-game series, the Tigers may be able to start super-ace Tarik Skubal twice. And perhaps the six runs the Tigers scored in Cleveland will provide a little all-important momentum going into the Emerald City.