You will never get over it.
That’s something people will tell you after you lose someone so close you couldn’t even fathom the possibility of losing them.
You’ll never get over it.
It’s more common to hear it when you already know it, and that’s probably why people say it, to acknowledge a shared bond in this bottomless sorrow.
If you’re reading this blog, if you’ve come this far to care what I think after a game like that, you know—
We will never get over this.
On the other hand, in case you were wondering, that’s as bad as it gets.
That’s what I said after the game to someone young enough to not otherwise know better.
In the world of sports, that’s as bad as it can possibly be. That’s what it feels like. Now you know.
As far as describing in words what it feels like, well—it’s hard to believe an experience as awful as that could be reality.
That happened. That transpired.
It was as bad as you could possibly imagine and it happened.
The manager many have worried about since he was hired, dreading the possibility of a decision like tonight costing them a season like this, was caught on his heels as often happens to rookie managers—and it cost them everything.
The situation is pretty simple.
With a 3-1 lead and eight outs between them and the pennant, the Mariners were looking at runners on second and third and the top of the Jays’ order coming to the plate—led by familiar foe George Springer.
It’s a crummy spot to be, admittedly. Yeah.
What do you do? You go with your best guys.
Or not.
Dan Wilson would call on Eduard Bazardo.
I love Eduard Bazardo.
But he is not one of your best pitchers. He’s not.
Already in, you had Bryan Woo. Best starter all year long.
He’d even faced George Springer in this game and it went like this:
Said Wilson:
“Bazardo has been the guy that’s gotten us through those situations, those tight ones, especially in the pivot role,” Wilson said. “And that’s where we were going at that point.” […]
“You make your decisions, and sometimes you have to live and die with it,” Wilson said. “I think, again, the way Bazardo has thrown the ball all season long, we were comfortable with where we were and it just, again, didn’t go our way.”
And Bazardo:
“Yesterday, I threw the same pitch right there and it was a ground ball. And today was the day he got me.”
“I was ready. I threw my best sinker. He just got me today.”
Dan?
He got caught playing checkers.
This was Bazardo’s fourth time pitching in the series. George Springer got a look at him twice just this week.
Springer last faced Muñoz in July of 2024. He popped up to left on the first pitch he saw, the first out in a tied top of the ninth on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Seattle.
But that’s getting way too granular. It need not be that complex.
You want your best guys pitching in the biggest spots and the Mariners chose not to do that.
Well, if I had to guess, they weren’t ready.
The game was moving too fast on Dan and it was already too late before he had a chance to stop and think.
You’re not going to get a moment to stop and think at this level, not in that spot—and now it’s all we have from here until pitchers and catchers report to Peoria.
The reason folks harp on stuff like missteps in the manager’s chair, specifically outdated bullpen choices and a proclivity for sacrifice bunts, is that there’s so much in this game you can’t control. So much.
The Mariners could come back with a team demonstrably better than this one helmed by a version of Dan Wilson who isn’t managing like it’s 2004 and they might not come within six miles of the eight outs they were from the first World Series in franchise history.
It’s so hard to get here. The Mariners had never gotten here in almost 50 years, that’s how hard it is.
And they got got by a flaw they willingly chose to take on.
There’s a lot of different ways they can go here now. A lot.
They’ve climbed to a new level many times before and felt the numbing body blow of plateauing right there.
You can trace a through-line—well maybe not you but I can—from 2014 to 2016/2018 to 2022 to 2025.
Do you press on without the setbacks?
Do you see now what it takes to get to this level?
I’ll clue you in: it’s having enough good players. That’s what matters above all else.
You were close this time. Hell, you probably had enough to go further.
But you need a lot just to get here. And you have to use them right.
There’s a lot more good players on the horizon. Sloan and Colt and Laz and Kade and so on.
You’ll still have to use them right.
And you’ll have to put the right pieces around them, to continue to supplement a supremely talented core just the right selection of second-tier veteran talent.
After the prices on those playoff games, you should have the money to do it.
(You better bring back Josh Naylor, I swear—)
We’re rambling now.
It’s hard to believe something that hurts as bad as that could have actually happened.
How’s that our reality? How’d they do the exact thing they couldn’t do in that moment—again?
That’s Mariners Baseball, I guess.
At least until it isn’t.
Go M’s.
Thank you for reading throughout the best season in franchise history. Let’s have another one of those next year.
Love you all.
Great season!!!! At the end of the day, only one team isn’t horribly unhappy. Now we’ll see if ownership will do what it takes to add talent and cut ties with aging, though popular, players on the downhill slide of their careers. Go M’s!!!!!
Great summation, Colin.
I hope this is the beginning of a Jordan/Bulls run, rather than a Marino/Dolphins run.
I don’t think that good players are enough. I think they have to be the RIGHT good players, who can work together, and prepare in the right way, combined in an organization that puts people in the best place to succeed. Everyone who has made it to this level is good. Sometimes that is not enough. I was looking at the faces of the players in the dugout watching the BJ’s celebrate, and hearing Cal call the season a “failure” made me ache, and it was heartening to hear him say that. Maybe this will be the end of “SAME OLD MARINERS,” maybe not. All I know is I hope it’s the beginning of a winning era.
View Level is a great place to be.
Go M’s.