The Doubles: 3 Seattle two-baggers key in ALWC win

TORONTO -- A late-innings double in a meaningful October game is particularly special territory in the context of the epic -- albeit brief -- postseason history for the Mariners.

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Saturday marked the 27th anniversary of “The Double,” the iconic walk-off hit from Edgar Martinez that sent Seattle to a win over the almighty Yankees in the 1995 ALDS. It’s the defining moment in Martinez’s Hall of Fame career, and before this week, the most defining moment in Mariners history.

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But after an unprecedented comeback that culminated with a 10-9 win in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series over the Blue Jays, the 2022 Mariners are creating their own history -- and Saturday’s win was full of iconic doubles, one each from Adam Frazier, Cal Raleigh and J.P. Crawford, that could be remembered with the same significance when it's all said and done.

“All season long, this team is about carving something out for themselves,” president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said. “Now, the goal is to win 11 more games. And if we can do that, they’ll be legends in Seattle. And that's what their goal has been from the very get-go is to carve out their own thing.”

Here’s a breakdown of each double that led to one of MLB’s most improbable wins this year:

Crawford’s prayer to ‘the baseball gods’
Thoughts of the improbable began creeping Seattle's way through the ticketed crowd of 47,156 once Crawford stepped to the plate as the go-ahead run. But so much still had to go right for the Mariners to pull it off.

On the first pitch with two outs, Seattle’s shortstop hit a sky-high fly ball into shallow center field that looked like an easy out -- until it kept creeping into no man’s land. The ball landed in such a tight window and with four defenders running at it that the bang-bang play ended with Toronto center fielder George Springer and shortstop Bo Bichette colliding in a scary sequence. Springer, who was “doing OK” after, had to be carted off.

“I was praying to the baseball gods to just find a hole,” Crawford said. “Thankfully, [the ball] did, and Frazier was hauling his butt around the bases to tie the game up, and now we’re here."

In postseason history, only David Ortiz (grand slam in the 2013 ALCS) had recorded a game-tying hit with three RBIs or more in the eighth inning or later – and Crawford’s had just a 55% hit probability.

Frazier’s go-ahead dagger
With two outs and a 9-9 tie in the top of the ninth inning, Frazier was in hunt mode. He knew that Toronto's All-Star closer Jordan Romano throws his slider 51.8% of the time and that if there was one up enough in the zone that it might be his best pitch to hit.

Already 2-for-4 and moved up to the No. 6 spot in the Mariners’ lineup, Frazier let a breaking ball get real deep into the strike zone then hacked it into the right-field corner, allowing Raleigh to surge from second base easily for the game-winning run.

“It’s been since college since I've been on a winning team,” Frazier said. “So it’s been great. It's not just the past couple of weeks, it's been all year.”

Again, the Mariners’ postseason history is limited to just 35 games, but Frazier’s was Seattle’s first go-ahead double in the ninth inning or later since Martinez.

Big Dumper’s big layup
Easily the Mariners’ hottest hitter right now, Raleigh ripped a 95.8 mph middle-up fastball from Romano and scorched it 111.4 mph off the bat with his helicopter left-handed swing, sending it into the right-center gap. With one out in the top of the ninth, it put the Mariners in business and set up Frazier for that game-tying knock.

Dipoto, who admittedly was sorting out pitching plans for a potential Game 3 just prior, said that once he saw Raleigh reach scoring position, “I knew we were going to win.”