> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Three Massive Managerial Moments that Decided ALDS Game 5 - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/three-massive-managerial-moments-that-decided-alds-game-5/ - Published: 2025-10-12T06:03:36.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:17:52.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: Analysis, Mariners, Dan Wilson, ALDS, 2025 MLB Playoffs, George Kirby, Gabe Speier, Matt Brash, Mitch Garver, Dominic Canzone, Leo Rivas [Embed from Getty Images](https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2240339426?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) When there are 15 innings, 15 pitchers, and just about 15 missed chances to win spread across two teams in a winner-take-all postseason game, there are bound to be managerial decisions that have a great impact. Towards the end of the battle, both teams simply exhausted their bullpens—and their starting pitchers—knowing that one meager run given up would almost certainly end their season. But in the late innings of regulation, Mariners manager Dan Wilson and Tigers skipper A. J. Hinch engaged in a bit of chess to try and preserve their one-run leads or make up their one-run deficits, and three moments resulted in the extra-innings stalemate. ### 1\. Wilson pulls George Kirby in the top of the sixth and replaces him with Gabe Speier. Mariners starter George Kirby had been working efficiently all game, with the aggressive Tigers chopping sliders and fastballs to one infielder after another. As the game progressed, however, Detroit’s hitters had started driving the ball deeper into the outfield, and although they had yet to start falling in for hits, Wilson was ready to dive into his bullpen if the lineup turned around for the third time with any sort of trouble on the basepaths. Sure enough, nine-hole hitter Javier Báez found the outfield grass on the very first pitch of the sixth inning. He gunned it for second, giving Julio Rodríguez a good chance to nab him, but the throw went offline and Báez had himself a leadoff double. Kerry Carpenter, who had cracked both of the Tigers’ hits on Friday and had crushed a go-ahead home run in Game 1 off Kirby, went up to the plate. Kirby may have been on just 66 pitches, but Carpenter, to that point, had been 7-13 against him with five of those hits being home runs. Wilson went to his bullpen and a left-on-left matchup in Gabe Speier, but although that matchup had kept a lid on Carpenter in Game 2, it backfired heavily in Game 5. Speier, fresh off a bad outing in Game 4, was not on his A-game on Friday night. For a reliever who typically carries a menacing expression, the fear plastered across his face was unusually detectable. Carpenter, sensing prey, pounced. The ball rocketed to deep right center for a go-ahead home run that put Detroit in the driver’s seat. Taking Kirby out in that moment was undoubtedly the right decision, but the choice of Speier gave the Tigers their one stroke of life. Brash, who came into the game in the seventh, had full use of his changeup in his two innings of work, a fact that made Detroit look foolish trying to swing against him. Hindsight is 20/20, but using Brash in the top of the sixth may have averted the extra-inning marathon entirely. ### 2\. Hinch takes Tarik Skubal out of the game to begin the bottom of the seventh, allowing the Mariners an inning against the mortal Kyle Finnegan. Sometimes—and this is more common in the modern game—a manager makes a decision based on analytical truisms that apply brilliantly in the regular season but fall short of reason in a win-or-go-home postseason match. Keeping a starter under 100 pitches can certainly be one of these truisms. It’s wise in the regular season, with guys throwing as hard as they can and rest and recovery rightly a massive focus. But when a Game 5 starter is mowing down the best of the best, it’s probably a good idea to keep him in. Tarik Skubal’s final pitch in the bottom of the sixth was a 100.9 mile an hour fastball that flamed past Cal Raleigh’s late swing for Skubal’s 13th strikeout; he clearly had the stuff to keep going for 20 or so more pitches, more than enough to handle the seventh and allow Will Vest a six-out save. Instead, Kyle Finnegan got the nod in the bottom of the seventh. Although he had pitched incredibly for the Tigers after the deadline, his pre-August performance for the Nationals had left a lot to be desired. Now, relievers are infamously fickle, and a change of scenery truly can turn a struggling back-end guy into a barnburner. But compared to Will Vest’s lockdown performance all year, Finnegan gave the M’s a little bit of life. A two-out single from Josh Naylor thickened the situation for Finnegan. Jorge Polanco stood at second, the first man in scoring position for Seattle since the second inning. Designated hitter Mitch Garver was due up, but the final matchup depended on a series of moves by both skippers. ### 3\. Wilson pinch-hits Dominic Canzone for Mitch Garver, Hinch responds by putting in the left-handed Tyler Holton, and Wilson three-bets with Leo Rivas. Mitch Garver, Friday’s starting DH, was in to face the left-handed Tarik Skubal. His platoon splits over 2025 were quite stark, with a .718 OPS against southpaws but a .550 OPS against right-handers. Finnegan’s right-handedness sent Dan Wilson searching for a left-handed batter, and he had a perfect option in Dominic Canzone. Canzone is perhaps the most underrated player on the Seattle Mariners. Over the 2025 season, he was the only Mariner with more than 200 plate appearances to sport a .300 batting average, and his propensity for line drives helped him to an .840 OPS. Hinch, in response, went to a lefty from his ‘pen. Tyler Holton waded through the left field grass and took the hill, but Hinch had fallen into Wilson’s trap. The Tigers were short one more reliever as a game-tying run stood 180 feet from home and the ghost of Game 1’s extra innings still fresh. Wilson completed the pair of jacks, however, with the switch-hitting Leo Rivas. Not only was there no platooning such a hitter, Hinch would have not even had the option due to the three-batter rule. Holton left an 0-1 changeup right over the plate. The ball found the left field grass in the blink of an eye as Polanco easily scored from second to tie the ballgame. A marathon for the ages ensued, each team squandering opportunities at the plate and snuffing their opponents out from the rubber. Seattle won the battle in the end, but they would not have had the chance if Leo Rivas had not found an opportunity to pass into the world of Seattle legend—had Dan Wilson not outfoxed A. J. Hinch.