Baseball's majesty and misery are almost always intertwined. And in a stunning eighth inning in an unforgettable Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, they were inseparable.
For several pulsating minutes at T-Mobile Park, the fates of the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners hung first on a crucial decision by a manager, and then in the air for several tantalizing seconds as Cal Raleigh's pop fly ball drifted into the left field stands, and then finally when Eugenio Suárez's grand slam settled into the right field stands.
A short burst of bedlam flipped the game from the Blue Jays' win column to the Mariners', a 6-2 victory that pushed them to a brink they've never encountered: One win away from their first World Series title in the franchise's nearly 50-year history.
And it shoved a motley cast of characters front and center. Games 6 and 7 in Toronto may usher new narratives and different heroes and goats. But this wild night belonged to them.
He's played for four franchises, beloved so much in Seattle that the Mariners had to bring him back this year that year felt more special than most and certainly deserved some trade-deadline punch added to the club's perpetually pop-gun lineup.
