A Grip on Sports: The Mariners got closer to the Promised Land than they ever have but it is easy to wonder if Dan Wilson is ready to lead them there

A GRIP ON SPORTS • In about a week from now, the fans of either the Los Angeles Dodgers (likely) or the Toronto Blue Jays (less so) will be feeling the bliss and fulfillment of their team winning the World Series. The fans of the Seattle Mariners? Maybe by then they won’t be feeling what they felt last night. Or this morning. What is that? The opposite.

•••••••

• There is no joy in Mudville. Mighty Julio has struck out. The sun will be shining on someone else this offseason – again.

So, tell me, what is the opposite of bliss? Is it sorrow? How about fulfilment? Dissatisfaction? Despair? The latter seems better.

It’s almost biblical, isn’t it? The multitude of lifelong Mariner followers looking to the heavens, pelted by the rain of disappointment once again, crying out for relief. And answers.

When will we reach the Promised Land? Who will lead us there?

Should I offer an umbrella? Or is too soon?

Would you rather wallow in your misery for a while? Perfectly understandable after Monday night’s heartbreaking 4-3 defeat. Cry out. Lash out. It’s good for the baseball fan’s soul. There is no jinx of Danny Kaye or Alex Rodriguez hanging over this franchise, even if it feels like it. It’s baseball. It’s freaking hard to win. Keep pounding on the door long enough … OK, it is too soon for such clichéd platitudes.

Let’s get to throwing the knives.

The largest one has to be reserved for the manager. The sacrificial lamb Jerry Dipoto threw to the fanbase a year-and-a-half ago to placate them when he was forced to first his longtime friend Scott Servais.

As I wrote at the time, I’m pretty sure Dipoto used Machiavellian logic by naming Wilson to replace the guy Dipoto picked a decade ago to help him build a winner in Seattle.

What Mariner fan could criticize a legend at the helm? A former M’s glue guy with deep ties to the best manager the franchise has ever known, Lou Piniella? Even if that guy had never managed anything more than a TV booth microphone.

Wilson was bulletproof – and offered Dipoto a Kevlar shield for the future.

When Wilson failed, the likely outcome considering the circumstances, Dipoto could hire a more experienced manager, a better fit to lead a team on the cusp of greatness instead of a learn-on-the-job one who might get close but fall at the tape.

Except Wilson didn’t fail. Not in his 34 games last season. Nor this year, at least in the 90-72 American League West-winning regular season.

It seemed easy to believe, as some of the Mariner faithful expressed in their socials, all this group of young players needed was Wilson’s type of calm leadership.

It’s easy to point to this season’s accomplishments – the record, the West title, the Division Series win over Detroit in five – and believe Wilson was the right choice. Except for a couple caveats.

The M’s still came up short in 2024, which is probably on the front office more than Wilson. The team had lineup and bullpen holes that, like throughout Servais’ eight-and-a-half-year tenure, were patched with cheap alternatives that didn’t hold when the pressure ratcheted up.

This season, the ownership gave Dipoto and company the go-ahead to do what should have been done in 2021, ’22, ’23 and ’24 – while Servais was in charge. They spent a couple types of capital – money and prospects – to bring in Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor. Their additions had more to do with winning the West than any other single factor. In fact, I would argue if such moves had been made in any of the previous three seasons, the M’s would have been in the World Series already. And Servais would still have the job.

Add in the fact Dipoto didn’t do the same with bullpen at the deadline this season may have had more to do with them not completing the World Series run – Pirate-castoff Caleb Ferguson was not the answer to the depth issue – than any other one – as evidenced throughout the ALCS.

But everyone, even the billion-dollar Dodgers, has bullpen holes. How Wilson and his staff tried to cover for them in the postseason was interesting, to say the least. And unacceptable, to say the most.

With Bryan Woo recovering from his arm injury, there were fewer options. But the starting staff, heralded as the best young one in baseball in 2024 and this year, still was a strength. How Wilson used it was mystifying.

At times, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo were given longer than expected rope. At other times Bryce Miller, Gilbert and Kirby were pulled when they seemed to be dealing. Castillo threw once, didn’t have his stuff, and was never seen again. The rhymes and reasons were hard to discern.

Which brings us to last night.

Game Seven. Series on the line. The ball was in Kirby’s hands. That had been the case in Game Three and had not worked out well. The righthander gave up eight earned runs in four innings at T-Mobile. On 74 pitches.

It was a different Kirby in Toronto. After struggling a bit in the first, partly because he (and Shane Bieber on the other side) were trying to solve Quinn Wolcott’s puzzling strike zone, he settled in. Four the next three he was more-than-good. No runs, two hits. At 65 pitches, he was just fine. And Wilson pulled him. Went to Woo, making his second relief appearance in the series – and MLB career.

The reason? As far as is possible to tell, because Wilson did not want Kirby facing the top of the lineup for a third time.

That started a cascade. Woo had the fifth and sixth. Scoreless. The M’s built a 3-1 lead. But a walk, a hit and a sacrifice was enough for Wilson in the seventh. He went to the bullpen with the Jays’ best hitters – George Springer, Nathan Lukes and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – in the queue.

A more experienced manager might have seen this as the pivot point. Might have decided to use his best relief pitcher, a rested Andres Munoz, in this spot. But not Wilson. He went to the bullpen, got his third- or fourth-best arm. The seventh-inning guy (or earlier), Eduard Bazardo. You know, the same guy who pitched two innings the night before. And had faced Springer. To be fair Bazardo threw well all season, including in the ALCS. That’s why he was making his fourth appearance.

It wasn’t his best. Springer took Bazardo’s second pitch into the seats and the Jays into their first World Series since 1993, their second of consecutive championships.

The Mariners, who came into existence the same year as Toronto? They are still waiting.

As are the Mariner fans.

•••

WSU: The world keeps turning, right? And this week, the sun will shine in Pullman (or not). The Cougars welcome Toledo to town (Saturday, 12:30 p.m., The CW Network). Greg Woods takes his first look at the contest, Washington State’s first home game in a month. … Greg also has this report on Jimmy Rogers’ press conference. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, it’s Tuesday, so Jon Wilner has his Big Ten and Big 12 power rankings on the Mercury News site. … John Canzano has his usual Monday mailbag and something unusual, a look at the committee AD Scott Barnes has put together at Oregon State to advise on the football coaching hire. Just who might Barnes pick? … The Beavers’ bye gives them a chance to answer some questions. … Arizona is using its time to bolster the run defense. … We liked this Washington Post story on one of the most-prominent officiating analysts.

• Here are the rest of the (current, old and future) Pac-12 games this week, listed chronologically. All are on Saturday unless noted. The schedule below also includes any game in which finding news turned out to be nearly impossible.

– California at Virginia Tech (Friday, 4:30 p.m., ESPN) 

– Boise State at Nevada (7, CBS Sports): The Broncos want to honor former star running back Doug Martin, who died at 36 over the weekend.

– UCLA at Indiana (9 a.m., Fox): Hey, did you know the Bruins are undefeated? Well, only if you forget the first four games. But the Hoosiers coach is selling that. … Interested in Indiana’s success the last couple seasons? We have you covered.

– Utah State at New Mexico (noon, Mountain West Network): The Aggies got the job done in the fourth quarter last week.

– No. 23 Illinois at Washington (12:30 p.m., Big Ten): Jedd Fisch talked with the media Monday and gave updates on injuries.

– San Diego State at Fresno State (12:30, FS1): Coaches on the hot seat? Sean Lewis says it is what they signed up for.

– Wisconsin at No. 6 Oregon (4, FS1): The Ducks should win. Handily. In fact, the big question considering Wisconsin’s season, is will the Badgers score?

– Stanford at No. 9 Miami (4, ESPN)

– Colorado State at Wyoming (4:30, CBS Sports): With the firing of Jay Norvell over the weekend, the Rams will have a new look on offense. … Norvell’s tenure was marked with ups and downs.

– Houston at No. 24 Arizona State (5, ESPN2): The Sun Devils want to be better in the red zone this week.

– Colorado at Utah (7:15, ESPN): The Buffs have faced Utah’s backup quarterback the past couple years. And it could happen again Saturday. … Where does Kyle Whittingham stand on his future? No one knows for sure.

• In basketball news, it looks as if Jackson Shelstad may miss the opener for the Oregon men. … Colorado has a deeper and more versatile backcourt. … Arizona always plays a lot of ranked teams.

EWU: The Eagles’ Dan Monson has lost one of his returning starters, Andrew Cook, for the season. The Carroll College transfer suffered a broken ankle in practice and will miss the season. Dan Thompson has that news and more.  … Elsewhere in the (current and future) Big Sky, it’s that time of the football season. Looking ahead to the FCS playoffs and the Big Sky’s participants. … No. 5 Montana State heads to Cal Poly, a tougher trip this season. … Southern Utah got over the hump with their upset of a ranked Abilene Christian team.

Idaho: The Vandals have been playing without their starting quarterback Joshua Woods for the last couple games. But as Peter Harriman tells us, he could be back this week against winless Portland State.

Preps: We can pass along this roundup of Monday’s action.

Mariners: Before you get all preaching and talk about second-guessing, I’ve been writing all season about Wilson’s decisions. Maybe not as much as I should have, considering my reservations about the young starters regressing a bit. And yesterday, this is what I wrote: “Dan Wilson. He’s the wild card. Wouldn’t it be nice if tomorrow everyone is talking about his masterful orchestration of the pitching staff? Of his subtle moves, all of which hit the bullseye? Heck, even if the talk is of how he just let the game play out. Kept his hands off. Let his pitchers and hitters feel the support. And how they came through for him.” It didn’t happen. … Jacob Thorpe has a column in today’s S-R and he got to cover the worst part of the loss. The fact Springer was the guy who had the big blow. … Speaking of Mariner fans, Mathew Callaghan visited with some who were watching the game last night at Brick West Brewing. … Does this loss cut deeper than others? Yes. For a variety of reasons, some of which we touched on above. … There is a spotlight on Wilson and the Mariners today. Much of it reveals a lot of glaring errors. But Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh and Naylor had good games, which gives hope. Right?

Seahawks: Hey, the Hawks had a game last night? A home game? Yes they did. And they won, 27-19 over the Houston Texas. But how they won was not the best. Sam Darnold struggled in the second half, the defense, while stout, dropped four passes they could, maybe even should, have intercepted, and a blocked field goal led to a six-point late-first-half turnaround. Bottom line? Seattle is 5-2 and still tied atop the NFC West. … There are always grades. And instant impressions. … Hey, Jaxon Smith-Njigba had another coming-out performance. Except no one east of the Mississippi was probably awake to see it.

Kraken: Former (and maybe even future) Chief Berkly Catton made his NHL debut last night in Philadelphia. Had an assist. Seattle lost 5-2.

•••       

• Yes, I took one subject today and beat it to death. As the offseason rolls on – too early, right? – I’ll look at other aspects of the M’s successful season. And what has to be done to make the next one or two steps better. Until later …