SEATTLE — How do you get back to a place in the Major League Baseball playoffs where you haven’t been in more than two decades? Something the Seattle Mariners did with Friday’s epic 15-inning 3-2 walkoff win over the Detroit Tigers to advance to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2001?

You get contributions from nearly every single person on your roster — expected or unexpected, star player or bench player, starting pitcher or leverage reliever — to fight your way through 15 grueling innings of ulcer-inducing baseball where the largest lead by either team was one run — in the longest elimination in MLB postseason history.

How do you overcome an unbelievable pitching performance from Tarik Skubal, perhaps the best left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball?

You acquire a slow-footed first baseman named Josh Naylor, who had already been traded four times in his career, at the trade deadline to inject some intensity and savvy to the lineup and clubhouse. And then watch as he doubles off the best pitcher in baseball, steals his 20th consecutive base and scores a run on a sac fly from designated Mitch Garver, who most fans don’t want on the team let alone the lineup.

How do you bounce back from a crushing turn of events mid game, making every fan from Seattle to Sultan to Selah to Spokane, wonder if this Mariners’ misery will ever end?

You have a journeyman utility player named Leo Rivas, who spent most of his career in the minor leagues, including this season at Triple-A. Never quite a prospect, but too good of a teammate and person to reject, Rivas answered the call with a game-tying single to turn panic into possibility in seventh.

How do you prevail in an elimination game where it’s win or go home and going home isn’t an option?

You use every available arm, whether it’s a lanky starting pitcher, who won Game 3. And you find a way to work out of top of the 12th where your opponent has runners on second and third with one out and bases loaded with two outs with a reliever named Eduard Bazardo that just a season ago only pitched if the Mariners were up four or down four in a game.

How do you turn an already boisterous crowd of 47,025 that spent most of the night standing and battling anxiety and adrenaline, into hugging mess of unbridled joy and pure ecstasy?

You have Jorge Polanco, who exactly one year ago to the day, underwent knee surgery following an awful season in Seattle, and decided to eschew free agent offers from the Houston Astros and New York Yankees to return to the Mariners, lace the walk-off single to right field, scoring J.P. Crawford with deciding run in seemingly interminable 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

For the first time since 2001 and fourth time in franchise history, the Mariners will play in the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The seven-game affair starts on Sunday at Rogers Centre. Will they have any pitching left? Will they be gassed from the emotional victory?

Who cares.

The victory was theirs and for those that call themselves Mariners fans, as painful as it can be at times, to enjoy and celebrate.

Naylor made his presence felt in the second inning. After falling behind 1-2 after fouling off a hittable slider that left him shaking his head at the missed opportunity. But he wasn’t going to give in to Skubal. He made a lunging swing to foul off a slider away. Seeing the ugly swing, Skubal tried to rip a sinker away past Naylor at 100 mph. But Naylor made the swing as before with just a little more control, punching a line drive into the left field corner for a double.

As he did in Game 4 in Detroit, but a little less noticeably, Naylor offered hand signals to Mitch Garver at the plate to tip off the type of pitch or location. That strategy from Naylor has been a topic of discussion and something the Tigers wanted to stop. Perhaps that’s why Skubal didn’t notice Naylor take a monster lead, start to steal, hesitate and then finally take off for his 20th stolen base in 20 attempts with the Mariners.

The extra 90 feet loomed large when Garver, whose presence in the lineup was the subject of much consternation among fans, lifted a deep fly ball to center that allowed Naylor to tag up and score with ease.

That run didn’t rattle Skubal, it only seemed to irritate him to the point of dominance. He struck out the next seven batters he faced — a MLB postseason record. Those strikeouts came with a bit of a price. Skubal needed 49 pitches to get those seven outs as the Mariners fouled off plenty of pitches before punching out.

When Skubal fired a 101-mph fastball past Cal Raleigh for a swinging strike three, he had retired 13 consecutive batters he faced, including 10 strikeouts. Having thrown 99 pitches, he was done for the day. He struck out 13 batters without no walks and only two hits allowed.

Meanwhile, George Kirby rolled through the first five innings, retiring nearly every hitter he faced other than Kerry Carpenter. Carpenter led off the game with a single off Kirby and also singled in second plate appearance, giving him seven hits in 13 plate appearances off Kirby in his career. The rest of the Tigers mustered one base runner — Colt Keith getting hit by a pitch. Keith’s presence on the bases was brief. He made the unwise attempt to steal second and was retired on a perfect throw from Cal Raleigh to J.P. Crawford.

But when Javier Baez, the first player not named Carpenter, doubled to left-center to lead off the sixth inning. Kirby wouldn’t get the chance to face Carpenter for a third time in the game. He exited the mound shaking his head in disappointment while receiving a well-deserved standing ovation.

It was an eerily similar situation to Game 1 when Wilson left Kirby in the game to face Carpenter and a two-run homer followed.

This time, Wilson went to left-hander Gabe Speier, who had struggled in his outing in Game 4, but also had retired Carpenter three times in the series.

Speier missed with a first-pitch slider. Eager to even up the count, he fired a fastball to Carpenter, who was ready for it, smashing it into the seats in deep right-center for a spine-crushing two-run homer and a 2-1 lead.

This couldn’t be happening again, right?

But all those foul balls off Skubal — 29 of them to be exact — got him out of the game after six innings, instead of seven or eight. Facing someone other than a pitcher who will likely win back-to-back AL Cy Young awards, the Mariners finally put an inning together in the seventh. Jorge Polanco worked a one-out walk off Skubal’s replacement, Kyle Finnegan. With two outs, Josh Naylor singled to right field to put the tying and go-ahead runner on base.

Here’s where it got interesting. Wilson called on left-handed hitting Dom Canzone to pinch hit for Mitch Garver. Expecting the move, Hinch had left-hander Tyler Holton up and ready to enter the game.

When Hinch called on Holton to come out of the bullpen, Wilson had a counter move. He had Leo Rivas replace Canzone as a pinch hitter before a pitch was thrown.

The move proved prescient when Rivas, who was making his first career postseason plate appearance while also celebrating his 28th birthday, lined a single into left field, turning T-Mobile into joyous chaos.

©2025 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.