Oct. 10—TORONTO — After colorfully lauding his Mariners for their resiliency and their ability to rally from a seven-run deficit in Saturday's preposterous 10-9 win over the Blue Jays, and just before Champagne would explode all over the visitors' clubhouse of the Rogers Centre to celebrate a wild-card series victory, manager Scott Servais briefly mentioned the road ahead. "Next stop, y'all ...

Rick Lukens has spent the past few months on social media trying to convince naysayers that this year's Seattle Mariners squad has a shot at greatness. 

TORONTO – In the midst of the Mariners’ midseason 14-game winning streak, Adam Frazier was trying to balance the frustration of his inconsistencies at the plate and the beautiful chaos that the team was unleashing on the rest of the league.

TORONTO – Before this American League Wild Card Series began, I asked a member of the Mariners’ traveling party what sort of celebration they planned if the ballclub should happen to knock off the Toronto Blue Jays. Given that it would just be the first of four steps to their stated goal of winning the World Series, I thought it might be a little more sedate than the near-bacchanalia following their drought-breaking victory in Seattle.

How do you recover from an awful outing from your starting pitcher, a worse showing from one of your best relievers and a seven-run deficit with everything seemingly working against you and a sold-out crowd cheering against you like it’s Thunderdome?

TORONTO – When J.P. Crawford ran out to shortstop in the first inning, he allowed himself a moment to soak it all in.

TORONTO – After striking out the side in the seventh inning in his seemingly effortless fashion, whipping triple-digit fastballs with terrifying movement past hitters, freezing them with knee-buckling sliders and mixing in a few shake-your-head change-ups just because he could, Luis Castillo flashed a grin, removing his hat and offering his trademark fist pump that looks like a celebratory uppercut.

Marco Gonzales, solid in Wednesday’s season-finale, all but ensured he will not pitch in the AL Wild Card, a bitter result for the hurler out of Gonzaga who has been a fixture near the top of the Mariners’ rotation and in setting Seattle’s new playoff standard.

Michael Rynders knew the exact date.

SEATTLE – During one offseason early in his minor league career, Luis Castillo was back home in Bani, Dominican Republic, when he happened to see his idol, Pedro Martinez, sitting not far from him in the same restaurant.

SEATTLE – A little more than a year after he threw his first professional pitch in the Gulf Coast League as the Cardinals’ first-round draft pick out of Gonzaga for the St. Louis Cardinals, Marco Gonzales stepped on the mound of Dodger Stadium in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.