Mariners' guess was so wrong, it deserves a second

This is the time of year when major league managers turn into Bobby Kennedy. They see things that never were and say, “Why not?” Specifially they see starting pitchers, perhaps the ultimate creatures of routine in sports, becoming relief pitchers in game-deciding situations. It happened in Houston Tuesday with Robbie Ray of the Mariners. The vision dissipated quickly.

Ray is the lefthander who won the Cy Young Award in Toronto last year. He was minding his own business, watching his teammates build a surprising lead over the Astros, probably getting his mind right for a start later in the 5-game series. Scott Servais, the Mariners’ manager who has done a fine job this year and last, maneuvered Paul Sewald, his year-long closer, into the ninth inning. By then Houston had closed to within 7-5, after Alex Bregman homered off a 101 mph pitch by Andres Munoz.

Sewald began the ninth. In the regular season he pitched 64 innings and gave up 32 hits. He’s righthanded but limited lefty hitters had a .167 average. When you have a closer like that, you tell the rest of your bullpen to sit down and enjoy the show. Even when Sewald hit the lightly-used David Hensley with a pitch and then gave up a two-out single by Jeremy Pena after he’d fanned Jose Altuve, he would have been entrusted to finish, had this been any other month.

But October is the lair of the micro-manager, and who knows what texts Servais was receiving from the analysts upstairs? He brought in Ray to face Yordan Alvarez (pictured), ostensibly because Alvarez is lefthanded. One problem: Alvarez has a .997 OPS in 2022 against lefthanders.

Alvarez is capable of hitting the loudest and fastest baseballs in the business, and on 0-and-1 his two-out home run startled technicians at NASA headquarters. So did the rejoicing. The Astros won, 8-7.

That doesn’t mean Seattle can’t win the series. Indeed, it has the incandescent Luis Castillo pitching Game 2. But it does mean the Mariners lost this one because it asked a player to do something he isn’t programmed to do.

Servais is not the Lone Ranger in this regard. In 2019 Clayton Kershaw entered Game 5 of the NLDS in relief, finished an inning, and then went back out to face Washington’s Anthony Rendon, when Kenta Maeda could have gotten the call. Rendon’s home run helped Washington come back and win. Career starter Dennis Leonard of Kansas City started the ninth inning against the Yankees in Game 5 of the 1977 ALCS, with disastrous results and a New York come-from-behind win.

Some will point out that Max Scherzer finished off the Giants for the Dodgers in the NLDS last year, but in doing so Scherzer found himself unable to answer the bell in the next round. And in 1988 Orel Hershiser did the job against the Mets, but that’s the literal meaning of “exceptional,” which Hershiser was.

Kershaw relieved Kenley Jansen to wrap up the 2016 Division Series at Washington, but that was a desperate situation, not a Game 1. Madison Bumgarner took over Game 7 of the 2014 World Series for San Francisco, but, again, that was the final game of the season regardless.

And, yeah, Robbie Ray should be able to retire Yordan Alvarez. But Alvarez was in his element and Ray wasn’t. This is the same Ray who was impossible for the 2017 Dodgers to hit when he was in Arizona. But the Dodgers avoided seeing him in Game 1 or 2 of the Division Series that year because Ray was called upon to relieve Zack Greinke in the Wild-Card game against Colorado, a game the Diamondbacks were winning anyway. The Dodgers showed their appreciation by sweeping Arizona.

As usual, Alvarez’s homer obscured all the other details. Bregman’s homer was one of them. So was Kyle Tucker’s catch at the wall and Bregman’s outstanding catch-and-tag of Jarred Kelenic, trying to steal second with two out in the eighth and Seattle leading 7-3.

There also were moments when Minute Maid Park was pulpy with despair, like when Altuve stuck out and grounded into a double play late, and when Eugenio Suarez hit the solo shot that created that four-run lead. Justin Verlander, the presumptive Cy Young Award winner, took a frightful beating, pitching for the cycle in his last inning, and that will encourage the Mariners if they see him again.

Alvarez, who should be no lower than fourth in the MVP election, provided the first day of Division Series play with its only true highlight.

The Phillies pecked away at Atlanta’s Max Fried and took a 1-0 lead in that series, significant because Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are their next two pitchers, and neither gave up a run in the Wild-Card series.

The Guardians need a wood transplant, since they’ve scored three runs in 33 innings and lost their Game 1 to the Yankees, 4-1. New York looked energized, with spry defensive plays all over the diamond and home runs from Anthony Rizzo and Bronxville native Harrison Bader.

And after Dave Roberts told Craig Kimbrel he was off the Dodgers’ NLDS roster in what Roberts described as a “tough meeting” — one envisions Kimbrel looming over Roberts’ desk in his preying mantis pose — the L.A. bullpen stopped San Diego’s rallies in that 5-3 win. They talk about the process of damaged pitchers limping into L.A. and suddenly throwing away the crutches, and Chris Martin is the latest example. After a tough tour with the Cubs, Martin had a fanciful 0.527 WHIP in 26 Dodger games, and he pitched the ninth on Tuesday. He’s throwing more cutters and splitters than he was before. Whether that’s intelligent design or happenstance, it’s working.

There’s no shortage of real phenomena in a playoff game without squinting to find the paranormal. Eight teams were good enough to get here. Eight managers need to realize that, and curb their imaginations.