It won’t be easy, but Mariners can overcome ALCS thumping by Blue Jays

Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford (3) can not make the play on the Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk (30) single in the fifth inning as The Toronto Blue Jays played the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of the ALCS... (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)

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By Mike Vorel Seattle Times columnist

At 1:32 p.m. Wednesday, a man held a microphone outside T-Mobile Park. He skipped along the intersection of 1st Avenue South and Edgar Martinez Drive, under Ken Griffey Jr.’s bronzed, unblinking eyes. Griffey’s statue was outfitted with a white T-shirt, with three words — SEIZE THE MOMENT — bolded in blue.

The microphone man had no shirt. Needed no shirt.   

Like Griffey, he came equipped with a three-word slogan.

“Let’s! Go! Mariners!”

“Let’s! Go! Mariners!”

“Let’s! Go! Mariners!”

He was a pale, repetitive rallying cry. In baggy green shorts, he high-fived fans, canvassing the corner behind home plate, inexhaustible. It was 59 degrees, and three and a half hours before first pitch. The details didn’t matter.

The Mariners were two wins away from the World Series.

They’re still two wins away.

AL championship series Mariners 2, Blue Jays 1

Wednesday’s Game 3 thumping — a 13-4 Blue Jays win — provided sobering, painful proof that this won’t be easy. It’ll take more than 46,000 microphone men and women to beat the Blue Jays. It’ll take more than a trident-toting fan base’s collective longing. It’ll take more than mustaches and hot dogs falling from the sky. It’ll take more than Humpy the Salmon’s two-race winning streak.  

It’ll take more than three-word slogans — SEIZE THE MOMENT, JOB’S NOT FINISHED, etc. — marketed and printed and bolded in blue.

It’ll take more than you or I or any Etsy witch can will.

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It’ll take executed pitches, timely hits and an ability to bounce back.

For six months, mostly, the Mariners have done that. They didn’t Wednesday.

“This is a team that has done this a lot this year, in terms of bouncing back, being resilient. We’ve used a lot of words for it,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Tomorrow’s going to be that opportunity again for us, and these guys know how to prepare and be ready for that, and I don’t expect it’s going to be an issue for them at all. This is a team that has proven over and over again that fighting back, bouncing back, having resiliency is a part of their DNA.”

Granted, the game started with a celebration. With a runner on in the top of the first inning, Julio Rodríguez extended his arms and unseated a stadium. He turned on Shane Bieber’s 93-mph fastball and drilled it beyond the bullpen, lifting both arms above his head before hitting second base. A sellout crowd of 46,471 came gleefully unglued.

But that was a lazy river before the waterfall.

After being limited in back to back losses, the Blue Jays exploded for 18 hits, 13 runs and five homers Wednesday. First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — who went 0 for 7 in Toronto — finished 4 for 4 with three runs and a seismic solo shot. Second baseman Andrés Giménez, who notched 16 combined homers in his past two seasons and 253 games, belted a two-run shot to tie the score at 2-2. George Springer, Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger all added long balls.

When Kirk’s three-run homer in the eighth inning extended Toronto’s lead to 12-2, a rebellious band of Blue Jays fans started an “M-V-P” chant, a not-so-subtle swipe at fellow catcher and Mariners superstar Cal Raleigh.

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But given their 18 hits and 13 runs, no one Blue Jay was most valuable. This was an equal-opportunity clobbering of George Kirby and Co.

“The first couple innings, I thought he was dynamite. He really came out with good location and good heaters coming out of his hand. He was able to keep them in check,” Wilson said of Kirby, who surrendered eight hits and eight earned runs in four innings. “But this is a team that’s going to hurt you if you make mistakes on the plate. It looked like there were a couple that they were able to get to.”

A couple more than a couple.

(Maybe a couple more than that.)

Bad news: this is who the Blue Jays have been. Don’t let the past two losses fool you.

This is still a team that won 94 games, tied for the most in the American League. It’s still a lineup that finished first in MLB in batting average (.265), third in OPS (.761) and fourth in runs (798). It’s still an offense that bombarded the Yankees in the ALDS, to the tune of 34 runs in a four-game felling.

Wednesday’s waterfall was not a fluke.

Nor should it be a funeral.

“Coming out hot, getting two in Toronto, was huge. One loss doesn’t discourage us,” Kirby said. “No one said it was going to be easy. Losses are part of the game.”

To avoid another, the Mariners need a stabilizing start from Luis Castillo in Game 4 on Thursday. They also need role players such as Eugenio Suárez (5 for 33 with 13 strikeouts in the playoffs), Víctor Robles (3 for 26 in the playoffs), J.P. Crawford (2-for-10 in the ALCS) and Dominic Canzone (1 for 15 in the playoffs) to contribute.

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But when has it ever been easy for this team? For these fans? For this city?

Who thought a lazy river would lead to this 49-year-old franchise’s first World Series?

Good news: the Mariners have proved they can withstand plenty. They withstood early injuries to starting pitchers Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller. They withstood bouts of inconsistency and ruinous road trips. They withstood two potentially disastrous ALDS losses to the Detroit Tigers.

This series is still theirs to win.

But the fans can’t win it for them.

“It helps. It helps. It helps,” Rodríguez repeated, on his team’s history of bouncing back. “Not just in that [ALDS] series but through the whole year, there’s been tough moments for us. You just have to flush it and know we have to line up tomorrow again.”