Among teams left standing in the 2025 playoff field, only the Milwaukee Brewers had a better bullpen ERA during the regular season than the Mariners, and Seattle’s relief corps was a major weapon early in this series.
Despite taking the loss in Game 1, the bullpen provided five scoreless innings before Carlos Vargas was tagged for the winning run in the 11th inning.
Reliable late-inning arms Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz all looked rock solid in Game 2 and Game 3 wins, and things looked to be in good hands when Bryce Miller exited after 4.1 innings with a 3-1 win on Thursday.
Instead, Speier allowed back-to-back RBI doubles to tie things up, and while he escaped the fifth without any further damage, that was just the start of Detroit’s scoring. Eduard Bazardo (1.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER) and Vargas (1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER) also gave up runs, and suddenly the bullpen is a question mark if Kirby can’t get the ball to Brash and Muñoz in Game 5.
Loser: Julio Rodríguez, Jorge Polanco Go Silent
Julio Rodríguez and Jorge Polanco were two of the hottest hitters in the Seattle lineup down the stretch.
Rodríguez went 3-for-5 with a home run in Game 1, while Polanco was 3-for-4 with two homers in Game 2, but both guys have gone cold the last two games.
They were a combined 0-for-9 with four strikeouts in Game 3, and they were 0-for-8 with five punchouts in Game 4, and that duo cooling off is suddenly a major concern heading into an all-or-nothing Game 5.
