Mariners lose ALDS Game 4 to Tigers, return to Seattle for elimination Game 5

DETROIT – Three cameras and a dozen reporters circled around Gabe Speier in a brightly lit hallway inside the Comerica Park visitors’ clubhouse, some 20 minutes after the Mariners’ 9-3 loss to the Tigers in Game 4 of the ALDS.

Speier, the Mariners’ left-handed reliever, backed up against an unforgiving white wall and dutifully answered questions about what went wrong Wednesday afternoon, after the Mariners squandered an early three-run lead.

What could have been a low point for Speier and the Mariners instead felt … just different. Something far from cataclysmic, anyway.

Speier seemed to capture the mood of the clubhouse when he pointed to Friday’s decisive Game 5 back in T-Mobile Park.

“Honestly,” he said, “all my mind is on right now is Friday. … I think everyone is really excited to get back to Seattle and put on a show for our home crowd.”

Yes, the cliché storylines are in play for both teams Friday – backs against the wall, elimination game under the bright lights – and the Mariners sound like a team immediately trying to embrace the opportunity ahead rather than dwelling on what they just gave away.

“We play really well at our park. Our fans make it really fun and the vibes are really great,” shortstop J.P. Crawford said. “So we go on to Friday with a positive mindset.”

The Tigers will have plenty of reason for optimism, too.

For one, they have probably the best pitcher on the planet, reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, rested and lined up to start Game 5.

Manager Dan Wilson said the Mariners will wait to announce their Game 5 starter. George Kirby and Luis Castillo are the two obvious options.

For another, the Tigers will be riding their long-awaited offensive resurgence from Game 4, when they finally got to Speier and the rest of the Mariners bullpen to score nine unanswered runs and retake momentum in this back-and-forth series.

“Obviously, this is an emotional game for everybody, fans included, and everybody is living on every pitch,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “… We knew our season was on the line. This is not the first elimination game that we’ve played this postseason, and our guys stayed loose and stayed in the game and came up with some really big pitches and some big swings.”

The Mariners have won all three games against the Tigers when Skubal starts this season, the first team to do that in Skubal’s six-year MLB career.

Skubal allowed two runs – on two Jorge Polanco solo homers – on Sunday in the Mariners’ 3-2 victory in Game 2 at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners will have to do something similar Friday – or their season is over.

“Everything’s in front of us, and these guys have done this all season long, where they get in tough situations and they know exactly what to do and they do fight back and they do bounce back,” said M’s manager Dan Wilson, echoing a familiar message he’s carried throughout the season. “I’m not worried about that at all, and no better place to do that than at home. So I think we just continue to do the things we’ve been doing and just get back on the right track on Friday.”

To beat Skubal and the Tigers again, they’ll have to play better than they did Wednesday. That’s a given.

The Mariners built a 3-0 lead on the strength of a playoff breakthrough from Josh Naylor a couple of days after he became a father. Naylor doubled off Tigers starter Casey Mize in the second inning – his first hit of this postseason – and scored the game’s first two runs and annoying Mize with some elaborate hand signals to M’s teammates while standing at second base.

In the fifth inning the Mariners had a chance to bust the game open – loading the bases with no outs – but they only got one run out of it.

Bryce Miller, in his first postseason start, breezed through his first four innings, allowing just two runners thanks to an improved fastball that nearly touched 98 mph.

“Obviously, I wish I could go six or seven innings and put us in a good spot,” Miller said. “But this being my first postseason start, and we’ve had a great bullpen all year, there’s no spot for me to sit there and argue coming out or anything. I’ve got full trust in the guys coming in after me and in Skip.”

Miller gave up his first run after single and a double to open the fifth, prompting Wilson to call on Speier.

It’s fair to wonder if Wilson’s decision to pull Miller came a little too late, or maybe even too early, but the simple truth is that became irrelevant when the Mariners bullpen – such a strength for the club down the stretch – struggled as much as it did.

Hinch used pinch hitter Jahmai Jones in place of lefty Parker Meadows to face Speier, and Jones amused a first-pitch fastball and sent it down the left-field line for a run-scoring double, cutting the Mariners’ lead to 3-2.

Javier Báez followed with a sharp single to drive in Jones and tie the score at 3-3.

Back out for the sixth inning, Speier left a slider over the heart of the plate that lefty Riley Greene sent 454 feet out to right field, giving the Tigers a 4-3 lead.

“I don’t think I made great pitches, and they got ’em,” Speier said.

Throughout the series, Speier has been the tipping point for both sides, the first domino to fall in the tactical back-and-forth between Wilson and Hinch.

Wednesday was Speier’s third appearance in four games, and Eduard Bazardo has now appeared in all four games. Could that familiarity benefit the Tigers now?

“Yeah, maybe a little bit,” Speier said. “I think more so today, it just came down to execution. … We’ve been talking about workload. I think everyone’s a little tired, but that’s no excuse. Honestly, we just need to execute a little bit better. I think we can make better pitches.”

Báez added a two-run homer off Bazardo in the sixth inning and Gleyber Torres added a solo shot off Carlos Vargas in the seventh.

“You know going into the playoffs, it’s going to be challenging. It’s not going to be easy,” M’s catcher Cal Raleigh said. “You’re not just going to roll teams like that. It’s not usually how it goes. There’s a lot of fight in the other clubhouse as well. They’re a good ballclub. … I have confidence in the guys that we’re going to go out and play good baseball. We know it’s going to be tough, but we’re up for the challenge. …

“It’s Game 5. Anything can happen.”