Don’t stop believing: Haniger’s five RBIs keep Seattle’s postseason dream alive

With one swing of the bat, Mitch Haniger kept Seattle’s postseason hopes alive, and shook the ground underneath T-Mobile Park.

Seattle found themselves down a run in the eighth inning, and the bases were loaded with two outs. The count was full, and Haniger found a sinker at the bottom of the zone. He extended his bat, poked the ball through the left side of the infield, and two runs dashed home. A sellout crowd of 44,414 exploded.

“It’s the true essence of ‘team,’” manager Scott Servais said. “The old saying is ‘there’s no I in team,’ and how we did it in the eighth inning is very symbolic of what we’ve done all year.

“I hope there were a lot of little kids in the stands tonight. Because it doesn’t get any better.”

A half-inning before Seattle’s late rally, Jared Walsh’s three-run moonshot gave the Angels a late lead and turned T-Mobile Park silent. But with elimination looking Seattle straight in the face, the Mariners stormed back for a 6-4 win.

Seattle still has reason to believe, even if only for one more day.

The path to the playoffs won’t be easy come Sunday. It’s a must-win game for Seattle, and they’ll need help in the form of a loss from either the Red Sox or Yankees. That would force a tie-breaking Game 163.

But Saturday’s win gave the final game of the season meaning, and a third consecutive sellout crowd awaits Sunday’s must-win contest.

“We need to win a game, I know that,” Servais said. “And I know we need a little help. We did what we could do tonight. We had to wash away yesterday’s game, which I think we did. It was not easy. We’ll show up tomorrow.”

The last time the Mariners played a meaningful Game 162 was in 2014, when Seattle needed both a victory and subsequent loss from the rival Athletics. The Mariners won, but so did Oakland, extending the playoff drought to 13 years.

Seattle played meaningful baseball in the penultimate game of the 2016 season, but a loss to Oakland killed any hope for the season finale. In 2018, Seattle could only watch the Athletics storm from behind to snag their wild card spot.

“When you think about how this season started, to be playing Game 162, and have on the line what is on the line, says a lot,” Servais said. “It says a lot about the steps we’ve taken forward as a team.”

Following two scoreless opening frames, Ty France doubled and Mitch Haniger singled to put Seattle in front on Saturday night. With an out in the third inning, France’s liner into right field popped in and out of the glove of Jose Rojas, and provided France with extra bases.

Three pitches later, Haniger’s single plated France and gave Seattle a 1-0 lead. Kyle Seager would reach on a fielding error later in the inning, but a subsequent fielder’s choice groundout and pop-out from Luis Torrens and Abraham Toro would end the threat.

“Mitch just does what Mitch does,” Seager said.

Chris Flexen took the mound for Seattle. It took him 40 pitches to navigate his first pair of innings, but he eventually settled in for a one-run performance that reached the sixth.

Los Angeles tied the game in the fifth when Jose Rojas landed a solo home run in the right field seats. A chorus of boos followed, and as one fan threw Rojas’ home-run ball back on the field, fans rejoiced.

When the Halos tied the game, it took only minutes for Seattle to take back their lead.

Ty France lined a one-out double into the right-center gap for his second of the night. And this time, Haniger drove his teammate — and himself — home.

It was the right fielder’s towering 403-foot blast into the Seattle bullpen that gave the Mariners a 3-1 lead. Haniger had logged his 38th home run of the season.

“We’ve believed in ourselves all year. We’ve come back a million times this year. And we’ve got to have our teammates’ backs,” Haniger said.

A questionable strike three call on Jarred Kelenic ended the fifth inning with runners stranded on the corners. In the sixth, Flexen dotted the outside corner for what could have been strike three to Jared Walsh, but home plate umpire Scott Barry saw otherwise.

On the next pitch, Walsh singled on a swinging bunt down the first base line, and Servais exited the dugout to get his starter. Flexen’s night was over after 5 ⅓ innings; he allowed one run on six hits, walking one and striking out another.

Servais turned to Casey Sadler to clean up the mess, and he delivered. Now with 28 consecutive appearances without allowing a run, Sadler struck out Max Stassi and induced a Jack Mayfield groundout to strand a pair of Angel baserunners.

Anthony Misiewicz worked a clean, face-the-minimum inning in the seventh with the defensive help of third baseman Kyle Seager.

In the eighth, T-Mobile Park’s sellout crowd turned silent. Facing Seattle’s best reliever in Paul Sewald, Jared Walsh smashed a three-run homer to right field that gave the Angels a 4-3 lead.

“You’re surprised when someone hits the ball off him, more or less squares one up and hits a home run,” Seager said of Sewald.

Seattle’s rally in the inning’s home half negated the blast. Haniger’s two-out single put the Mariners back in front, and Seager blooped a ball into center field that added an insurance run.

“Mitch just does not give at-bats away,” Servais said. No matter what the score is, what the situation is. He worked a really tough at-bat against (Steve) Cishek, got a good pitch to hit, and put a great swing on it.”

Drew Steckenrider allowed a double in the ninth, but earned his 14th save of the season. Seattle was still alive.

“We’ve won 90 games, guys,” Servais said. “It’s incredible.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 10:51 PM.