#MLBVideos: ALCS GAME 7 PREVIEW: Will Blue Jays or Mariners advance?! 👀

ALCS GAME 7 PREVIEW: Will Blue Jays or Mariners advance?! 👀

Welcome back to the Monday MLB central. We are presented by Exalor. JP Morose is north of the border living the life. Game seven is tonight. Good morning to you. You are all smiles. Your question, your interview with Traia Savage was unbelievable. You also asked him about his favorite game seven memory. This is what we all do this for. What’s the sense north of the border? Good morning. Well, Lauren, certainly the people of Toronto are hoping that their favorite game seven memory is about to happen tonight because it’s just the second game seven in Toronto Blue Jays franchise history. How about that? And it’s of course a reality because of what we saw and experienced last night at Roger Center. We’ve been treated to some amazing environments, Lauren. I’m not sure I’ve seen a better one than what I heard and saw last night at Roger Center. Of course, they had seen two defeats for the home team in games one and two, but everything changed in Seattle. They lose game five, and you just felt the urgency. Now, this is the second ever game seven in Blue Jays history. In a previous one, I was texting this morning with the man who was on the call for NBC that day, Bob Kostas with Tony Kubck. That was a bases loaded triple from Jim Sunberg. Of course, the Royals were able to win that one, game seven. They go on to win the World Series that year in 85. And so, this will be just the second game seven in Jay’s history, the first in the history of the Seattle Mariners. And Lauren, you think about all the parallels. They’re expansion cousins back in 1977. And now they’re meeting tonight in Toronto with a World Series birth on the line. I get goosebumps just talking about it even though it’s only 10:50 a.m. Eastern time right now as I’m saying it and we’re still a ways away from the first pitch. and Julio Rodriguez, to be honest, last night, I I want to give credit to the Mariners for how quickly they turned the page because he said, “Hey, I’m so excited to be playing in the first ever game seven in Mariner franchise history.” And as he was saying it, listen, it was the baseball gods. It was meant to be. And I think he’s right. This this series has been so closely matched. As much as that the Blue Jays are disappointed that they lost that game five with a chance to to win it in Seattle, they bounced back in a huge way in game six. John Schneider manages the bullpen very very well. Aaneo Suarez had his moments of course in game five. He made an error in game six. That’s how you know you’re in a great series. that the heroes had their tough moments, too. And now it’s all coming to the forefront in a game seven the likes of which this building, Rogers Center, has never seen. Again, you saw that the the previous game seven that the Blue Jays played was outdoors exhibition stadium. 44° Fahrenheit was the game time temperature. You saw, by the way, the Canadian Football League grid of the Toronto Argonauts out there because the the the seasons are overlapping. No such case tonight. Beautiful ballpark. Roger center. Game seven. We can’t wait. Wow, you’re firing me up. The strategy, JP, of these games is what I love the most. The pressure on the managers to execute the pitching plan to perfection. It will be Shane Bieber to start the game. And what does that look like in terms of innings, pitch count, what will you be looking for, Lauren? I think in many ways Shane Bieber is the ideal man to have on the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays. And I was actually chatting with some people in the Toronto clubhouse yesterday and and the general sense was they’ve got the right guy on the mount. Now, they’ve got a lot of good choices here in terms of other starting pitchers that are part of this rotation, but I go back to that game three and how much pressure there was on Bieber to try to flip that series around and he did it. There was of course the early power that we saw from the Seattle Mariners, but Beaver settled in so nicely. You look at what he was able to do. He had seven swings and misses on his slider alone. He threw five pitches well. Slider, forcame, change up, knuckle curve, and cutter all were working well for Bieber. And and honestly, Lauren, in that game, he outperformed his counterpart, George Kirby, who I know we’ll talk about here in a moment. But one other note about the the manager, John Schneider, and the way in which this game and this series is all coming together. Of course, John was criticized a bit uh for the game five bullpen issues there. I actually had less of an issue with it than many people did. And here’s my favorite John Schneider related note as we approach game seven tonight. John Schneider grew up in New Jersey. His favorite player growing up, Don Maddingley. Don Mattingley is now the the bench coach of the Toronto Blue Jays. Mattingley signed his first professional contract in 1979. If the Jays win the game tonight, John Schneider will have his favorite player as a kid. Don Mattingley in the World Series for the first time in Donnie Baseball’s career. His first time as a player, manager, coach. He’s been to the LCS before as a coach and a manager. Don Maddingley never in the World Series yet. That could change tonight. Wow, I just got goosebumps. Wow, what a story. A full circle moment for both of them. And both bullpens JP will be ready at first sign of trouble. Are we talking Ask Dro who should be available? He says everybody. Are we talking Gossman, Castillia? Woo. I guess it’s easier to ask who won’t be available. Right. Right, Lauren. And by the way, just Dro knows that that we’ll be asking him these very same questions before the gold medal game in March. Who’s in your bullpen, Dro? These are the best decisions to have to make. Let’s talk about the Seattle Mariners first. I’ll say this, Lauren. Yesterday when we saw Matt Brash coming to that game in a minus game, down three runs, eyebrow raised for me because now Brash, you see it there. He’s pitched in four games. I was a little worried about it from a Mariner perspective that now the best hitters on Toronto’s roster got an extra look at Brash. Didn’t love it. But the reason why it can make some sense is that last name on your screen. If Brian Woo is available, then it starts to make sense because then you consider how perhaps the pitching plan for the Mariners looks like a lot of George Kirby maybe through five innings, maybe even more than that, but five innings I think at minimum. Then Brian Woo, then Andres Himenez, who has been so or Andres Munoz, who has been so good. Munoz has been unbelievable for this team in in the postseason. So, I think Munoz is a guy that we see pitch in in the latter two innings. Now, with the Blue Jays, here are their options. I consider this situation to be an option potentially to see even Max Scherzer in the fifth or the sixth inning. We could see Chris Basset. Look at Basset. He’s only pitched in one game and he was pretty good there in game two. A lot to digest. Yes, a lot to digest. The questions came I thought of course Brennan Little struggled a bit there in the way that he pitched in game five. I think Mason Blue Hardy could be an option. You saw he pitched in all four of the first four games of this series. I think Flu Hardy is an option. Basset’s an option. Sherzer as well. Gossman said last night he said I’m available too. Jeff Hoffman I said hey Jeff you think after throwing 35 pitches in game six you might have a few more left. He said, “I’ll be ready, Lauren. They’re all ready.” And I think it’s basically unless you started game six. Okay. Treya Savage, he’s earned a night off in game seven, but I think basically everybody else from the Jays is there is available. I think the same thing is true for the Mariners. Lauren, it’s going to be an epic game. I I think all the ingredients, we’ve seen a lot a lot of drama in this series, but we haven’t seen that classic one-run game in the end. We’re due for one tonight. I want to have one of those back and forth. I want to have five lead changes and I want to be I want my lineup card to be just a complete You got suit on at 10 a.m. Eastern time. That’s how you know. JP Morosi, I’ll be sitting right there by by the time uh 8:00 rolls around. Lauren, I cannot wait. Uh this this city, this country, I was see I was walking to breakfast. All the Blue Jays hats are already out in downtown Toronto. JP Morosi on the inside corner live from Toronto. Thank you so much for the time as always.

MLB Insider Jon Paul Morosi looks ahead to ALCS Game 7 between the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays with a World Series berth on the line during @MLBNetwork.

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