Derek Jeter on Mariners: ‘Have Nothing to Hang Their Heads About’ After Falling in ALCS to Blue Jays

Derek Jeter on Mariners: ‘Have Nothing to Hang Their Heads About’ After Falling in ALCS to Blue Jays

Dan, you guys had an amazing season. What? First division title since 2001, beat Detroit in the division series. I know this is disappointing, obviously. What did you tell your team? Just how hard they fought. Um, you know, I think uh all season long these guys um just fought so hard. We, you know, had setbacks and and you have you go through ups and downs and these guys were always there uh bouncing back, working hard, getting through it. And um you know, it’s just an incredible group. It’s a special group that’s been in there and and uh you know what they’ve done uh with each other and and um you know how hard they’ve worked and how far they’ve gotten. Um you know it’s just it’s a tough one to swallow. How difficult was Toronto as an opponent? Yeah, I mean it was a good series, great series back and forth, you know, two good teams, you know, congratulations to the to the Blue Jays on on uh you know, advancing and and uh you know, just an incredible series. Um and uh you know, it was back and forth. We saw a lot of momentum shifts, a lot of momentum changes. Um, and um, you know, it just, uh, uh, you know, it ended up Toronto’s way, but, uh, a heck of a job on our guys’ part and on how hard they fought. Seventh inning, how much thought did you give to bringing Munoz in to stop it rather than Bazardo to face Springer? Well, I mean, you know, we had a lot of options down there and and Bazardo’s been so good in in that pivot role and and um you know, uh you know, he continued to throw the ball well all series long and and uh um you know, it just uh it just didn’t go our way tonight when and uh but but our guys have done it all season long. Dan, thanks very much. Thanks. Yeah, it’s easy to to question that. It’s a good question by Ken about Bizardo, but he’s been so good this postseason. Teams with zero championship appearances, the Mariners are the only one in baseball. So tough for the fans. And by the way, give Dan a lot of credit. Those interviews are hard to do. Uh, and he was standup guy with Ken there. Uh, let’s hear a little bit more from the M’s in their clubhouse after the game. But what ultimately do you feel like the legacy of this team is going to be having gone as further than any other team in franchise history? That I mean legacy is no one’s really satisfied or happy with this. I think I mean obviously like it hurts you know like we have put so much work and effort throughout this whole year and like you know it’s over you know but you know that’s also part of the game too you know I hate to use the word uh failure but it’s a failure um we that’s what we expected was to get to World Series and won a World Series and that’s you know what the bar is and the standard is you know it’s what we want to hold ourselves accountable to but um yeah it’s uh it hurts It’s heartbreaking, you know. I mean, that was a Mariners player, we’re told in the background, just screaming in anger. I I don’t know who, but then, you know, and um you work so hard you get to within, you know, two innings of going to your first ever World Series and it’s just impossible to surmise and, you know, talk about on a night like this. But I know one thing, you know, the job that Dan Wilson, your former teammate, did getting them here. Yeah, KB. I mean, I I love Dan Wilson so much and when I watch him, look, we’ve all been there, fellas. It sucks being on the other side of uh not winning. And uh Dan is a guy that I played with for seven years who every day we’ll go to the batting cage together at 2:00. He was such a great mentor to me. He’s a man of faith. He’s got a great family. He’s a great father. And it pains me cuz I know how much he cares and I’ve been there and he’s such a good guy, but I think they’ll be back and he’s he’s a great leader and uh you can just tell what a class act he is by watching him in that interview with Kenny. Yeah, it’s heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking for the players. You can see the pain in their eyes. Cal Raleigh especially. Um those interviews are tough. I mean, they really are. But the Seattle Mariners, they have nothing to hang their head about. I mean, they had an unbelievable season, a great season, successful season. You feel bad for them. You feel bad for the fan base, right? Because they were so close. They were so close. But this team will be back. You have Cal’s going to be there for a while. Julio is going to be there for a while. They got a taste of it and they’re going to be hungry. You talked, we talked to Vlad and Vlad was talking about how, you know, they’re in last place. They show up, they start working out early. Same thing’s going to happen with the Seattle Mariners. Now they have confidence. They know how good they can be and they’re going to want another crack at the World Series. Tough love, guys. Tough loss. And uh like you say, Cap, they got the taste of what it means to almost go to the World Series. They had a young team. This guy put it together throughout the whole season battling in in a division where they have one of the most fearless team, which is Houston. They beat them. They came out on top and they show the whole planet that they are capable of playing baseball the right way. Now they got the little taste now that carry over for the next season. You learn this year what you miss out to be able to complete the mission. a lot of pain in their faces, a lot of I mean Wilson the manager, I mean you can’t ask for no more than what he did, you know, but this is a great organization who going to have the opportunity next year to do it again. You know, you you can also like once they get a couple weeks to relax and unwind and they can zoom out. I think they’re going to be able to take a lot from this lesson. You know, it’s a missed opportunity if you don’t learn from this. And one of the things they may do, fellas, is look at this Blue Jays team, and borrow some of those philosophies and surround Cal and JRod with a little bit more complimentary contact speed and have a different attack because at the end of the day, it’s really hard to have 50% of your of your runs be home runs and in the postseason was 80%. That’s just hard and very hard to sustain, you know, in these game sevens when you have these pitching plans and you lay it out like which is done now, right? They they all think, “Okay, I’m going to get two innings from this guy, two innings from this guy, an inning from this guy, but it doesn’t always work to plan.” What did you think of the Mariners plan and how it was laid out? Kirby actually rough first inning, but he was really good after that. Just give me your feel with that. And then Kenny asked Dan Wilson about Bizardo. That was a spot to bring in your closer, but I get it. Bazardo’s been great this postseason. Just take me through what your thought about how they handled the pitching plan tonight. Yeah, look, it’s easy to sit here and and double, you know, question Dan Wilson, but we were watching in real time in the green room together. And I’m just a big believer is you got to get the the starter as long as possible. And when you look at 27 outs, I always start from the from the top down. So, I got two with Munoz, I maybe have two with Woo, and then I got to figure out how do I get these kind of middle innings. So Kirby, I I would have loved to have seen him be forced out of the game or at least go man, you know, batter to batter, the eighth batter, the ninth hitter, and Springer. Maybe have the bullpen ready, but don’t quite go so quickly to Woo proactively. Maybe wait because at the end of the day, the Mariners, it came down to this. They had their third best bullpen guy in the most important part of their season, perhaps the most important part of their franchise history. Yeah, I know. That’s what everyone does, right? We all sit and second guess. If I was the manager, I would do this. If I was the manager, I would do that. No one knows their team better than Dan Wilson. So, there’s so many things that go on behind the scenes. You don’t know who’s tired, who’s not tired, who’s available, who’s not available, because what the managers do is they protect their players. I mean, look, it’s one George Springer swing from us sitting here talking about the Seattle Mariners being in their first World Series. So, yeah, I mean, it’s it’s we can sit here and go through it, but we talked about it like you’d love starters to go as long as they possibly can. Um, but hey, they have a lot to be proud of and and I’m pretty sure they’ll be back. Absolutely. And like you say, Cap, I mean, one pitch change the whole game. I think they were doing phenomenal into that one situation uh uh shows up. I mean, facing one of the most fearless guy, especially in the playoff, which is George Springer. I mean, he was like the perfect guy at the perfect moment. Yep. You can ask for no more than that. Other than that, everything was going perfect for them pitching wise. We’ve said it’s not the home run, right? If you get if you don’t have the lead off walk and you don’t have the base hit, maybe a solo home run doesn’t beat you, right? But again, we can’t sit here. I think we’re talking more macro kind of philosophy. We’re not, you know, banging up Dan Wilson or the Mariners. You see this over and over again, uh, year in and year out, these mistakes happening or mistakes or, you know, these are judgment calls. You know, that’s what you get with a game seven, right? You get heartbreak, but you also get one of the greatest moments in baseball history really, right? had a game seven of an ALCS and George Springer’s home run sends the Blue Jays to the World Series. About as good as it gets. If you’re a Blue Jays fan, if you’re a baseball fan, if you’re a baseball historian, that was something else

Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Kevin Burkhardt analyzed the Seattle Mariners’ loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, emphasizing the team’s key positives and why this Mariners squad is poised for another deep playoff run next season.

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