Why Mariners and Tigers’ Pitching Duel Keeps Fans on the Edge of Their Seats

The Mariners were arguably the hottest team in baseball before the season ended, but after some days off due to winning the second overall seed, they dropped their playoff opener to the Tigers. It was a close game, with them losing in extra-innings. In Game 2, they had the exact same score of 3-2, but this time Seattle came out on top. It is interesting seeing the statistics between the two teams, because the Mariners added a ton of hitting at the deadline, I do see their lineup being better. However, the Tigers hit .247 for the season, compared to .244 for the Mariners. Seattle only scored eight more runs than the Tigers this season. The concern is that they had 40 more homers than Detroit, but only eight more runs? That makes a team very homer-dependent. In their win, Jorge Polanco hit two homers off of Tarik Skubal, something you wouldn’t expect. In their loss, they got one of their runs from Julio Rodriguez homering to center. So, of the five runs they’ve scored, three of them have come from home runs and two from other hits. In fairness, the Tigers hit a 2-run homer in their win. I just don’t find them quite as dependent on hitting home runs. I don’t love their offense, and they have scored three or fewer runs in four of the five playoff games.