'Vintage' Gilbert dazzles in Seattle Mariners' Game 3 win

With the Seattle Mariners in need of a win in a pivotal playoff game, Logan Gilbert turned in one of his best performances of the year to pull them one step closer to their first trip to the American League Championship Series in 24 years.

Gilbert dazzled with six strong innings in Game 3 of the AL Division Series against the Detroit Tigers. The right-hander struck out seven batters while allowing only one run on four hits to help lead the Mariners to an 8-4 win and 2-1 advantage in the best-of five series.

“It was vintage Logan, I thought. And to get that on the road in a big game tonight after a long rain delay, you can’t discredit that either,” manager Dan Wilson said. “(Being) able to come out and throw an outing like that after waiting a couple of hours is another feather in his cap. So he answered the call tonight, no question about it, and it was what we needed for sure.”

Seattle Mariners cruise past Tigers 8-4 for 2-1 lead in ALDS

Gilbert got the job done while Detroit’s hitters seemed to be making an effort to stay away from his devastating splitter, which had baffled the Tigers’ lineup in two outings in the regular season.

The Tigers entered Tuesday’s showdown having gone 0 for 13 with 10 strikeouts against the pitch versus Gilbert this season, racking up 15 whiffs and a 60% whiff rate. And their method to avoid getting beat by it looked like a simple one – don’t swing at it.

The Tigers laid off Gilbert’s put-away pitch at more than twice the rate they did in previous matchups, so he found other ways to mow through Detroit’s lineup, namely using his slider.

Gilbert threw his slider 37 times among his 85 pitches, which wasn’t necessarily out of the ordinary, but it was how effective the pitch was that stood out. Batters hit Gilbert’s slider harder than any other pitch in his five-pitch repertoire this season, slugging 10 home runs with a .255 average. Yet he was able to hold Detroit’s batters to just 1 for 8 off it with three strikeouts.

Gilbert retired Game 1 hero and pest-to-the-Mariners Kerry Carpenter with the slider in all three of their faceoffs, including inducing a groundout with runners on the corners and one out if the fifth that was nearly an inning-ending double play.

“I wanted to get the splitter, and I felt like he was tracking it pretty good, actually,” Gilbert said of facing Carpenter. “And some of them weren’t super competitive to him especially. But the slider worked pretty good … He’s a great hitter. You’ve got to make your pitches, and I felt like I executed when I needed to.”

As for the splitter, it was still an effective pitch that Gilbert went to 20 times, and Tigers hitters went 0 for 3 with three strikeouts against it. But those outs were spread far apart with one coming in the first in the other two in the sixth.

“He and Cal (Raleigh) have worked together for so long and know each other so well, and you come up with that game plan prior to. You go out there, and you see what’s working, what isn’t working. You see the adjustments that may or may not be being made, and that’s what you do. You make your adjustments,” Wilson said Gilbert’s ability to utilize his slider and splitter in the right spots.

“And I thought they – again, great game plan going out. Great adjustments throughout. And Logan’s execution was beyond reproach tonight.”

‘Vintage’ Gilbert dazzles in Seattle Mariners’ Game 3 win

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