AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS VS MARINERS

October 5, 2025

Dan Wilson

T-Mobile Park

Seattle Mariners

Pregame 2 Press Conference

Q. Dan, I know you talked a lot this season about The Rock's consistency and this team's ability to bounce back, but given the situation, just how comforting is it that, given the steadiness, that Luis is the one on the hill tonight?

DAN WILSON: Yeah. It's certainly going to be tested today, both of those. And, you know, Rock has pitched, you know, consistently well all season long. He's that veteran guy who's been in circumstances like this before and knows, you know, what's at stake.

I think he has pitched well against Detroit. You know, his first time out going seven innings strong, second time five innings, and our offense able to kind of open it up later, both times against Skubal. So he's up to the task, no question about it.

And you're right. Our guys -- today's the day to bounce back, which we have done all season long. So both of those today are of the utmost for sure.

Q. Dan, the play that you challenged yesterday with Julio running to second, is there a teaching point in there about maybe stopping to delay the tag, or is it just too much reactionary to think of something else?

DAN WILSON: Yeah. You know, oftentimes stopping there is a play. Sometimes you think you're going to be able to get by the fielder at the same time. So there's oftentimes where it's just a collision course and you feel like you're going to get past and you don't.

But, you know, it's a tough play there, and, you know, one -- you know, I think the challenge there was to see if there was an actual tag, and it did look like he had just kind of gotten him. So with an extra challenge, it was certainly worth that challenge at that point.

Q. Dan, I think both times you faced Skubal in the regular season, you lost two and came back and kind of salvaged not getting swept at home. And when you faced him in Detroit, it was coming off that Yankees sweep. What do you remember about those games, and what were you successful at to beat him? Because he's not a guy that gets beat very often, but what did you guys do right to beat him?

DAN WILSON: Yeah. A couple of things. One, we were pretty patient. And I think when you are patient with that -- you know, he's got the two good fastballs, obviously, with the velocity and then the velocity difference between that and the changeup. And just being patient there and trying to get pitches that you can handle I think is important.

And then, you know, being able to do that allows you to put some pitches on him and put them on him early. And I think the first time we faced him early in the season, I think we got close, you know, 95 pitches in five and a third or two. The second time I think we were up in the high 80s in five innings.

So I think that's a big key for us. I think another key is going to be hoping to get to him early. With good pitchers in these kind of situations, being able to get to them early is key. And hopefully that's what we're able to do tonight.

Q. Dan, a lot of relievers used last night, a lot of high-stress pitches. What's the state of the bullpen? Is Andres still back up tonight?

DAN WILSON: Yeah. I think everybody's available. This is the time of year where we have to be available, and these guys want the ball, and they want to be in those situations. And so I think we'll be ready tonight for whatever comes our way again.

Q. Yeah. You've got Mitch in there today. I mean, the lineup, obviously a righty, lefty. What do you like about him against Skubal?

DAN WILSON: Yeah. I think he's swung the bat decent against Skubal for sure. It's a tough at-bat, and he's been able to get to him.

And Garv with that has really shown the ability, especially this year, to not only give you good at-bats, especially against the left-handers, but being able to drive the ball too.

And I think that's one thing that we did pretty well last night, is drive the ball. We didn't get a lot of hits from it, but we did hit a lot of balls deep last night that didn't get out of the ballpark.

But Garv gives you that ability to hit out of the ballpark, especially against Skubal. So that's a big plus for us to have him in the lineup today.

Q. Dan, you were part of that '01 playoffs Mariners team and obviously know the drought since then, and I wonder if there's any added weight to try to beat the team that ends that for this fan base.

DAN WILSON: You know, I think every time you set out in Spring Training, you set out to get yourself to a World Series. And I don't think that the goal is different any year than any other, so I think -- I don't think you feel any more pressure or not.

You know, we're here. We're getting started in this Division Series. We dropped Game 1, but we've got to come back today, and that's our focus at this point, and I think we need to really concentrate on evening up that series today.

Q. Speaking of being patient with Skubal, Cal talked about -- last night about maybe just adrenaline being a little bit and coming out more patient and relaxed today. With yesterday being a bullpen day and you guys having faced Skubal, is there -- as good as he is, is there a sense of just familiarity that's kind of comforting to the fact that you guys will be able to come out more relaxed and just play your game today?

DAN WILSON: Yeah. I think having familiarity with a guy certainly does help. You know, even if it's a Skubal.

And, you know, oftentimes with bullpen games, you're seeing lots of different guys and having to make lots of different adjustments during the course of a game.

With a guy like Skubal, you definitely have to make your adjustments, but it's not adjusting to a different guy. So I think in some ways the familiarity will help. But I think offensively, like I said last night, we really did drive some balls deep in the ballpark and just not able to get them off the wall or over the wall, and more solid contact today will be good.

Q. Dan, in the regular season, extra innings, you're used to immediately coming out and being able to play small ball and move a guy over and get him in. How different is it to be back in this situation where you're trying to build an inning from the ground up? Cal talked about guys maybe getting too big in a situation like that.

DAN WILSON: Yeah. I think it is -- you sort of have to remind yourself that there isn't a runner at second base here, and you are starting from scratch.

And, you know, our guys, they know that part of our identity offensively is to grind out at-bats and find their way on base and create traffic. And, you know, I think that's when we're at our best. And in those extra-inning situations, it's even more pronounced, to try to find your way on base any way that you can so that you can start that inning off in the right way.

Q. Dan, you talked about trying to keep guys on schedule, keep the pitchers on schedule. With that in mind, is it at the point where using Bryce out of the bullpen would affect his ability to start later down the road in the series?

DAN WILSON: Yeah. I mean, we're -- again, we're watching it as we go and have to kind of assess the situation each day.

I mean, each playoff game presents its own different circumstances and whatnot, so we'll just continue to look at that as we go and see how it all unfolds.

Q. And then kind of on that note, any more decisions on a Game 3 starter?

DAN WILSON: Yeah. Game 3 starter, Logan Gilbert. So he will be our Game 3 starter in Detroit.

Q. What do you expect to see out of him?

DAN WILSON: Logan Gilbert, what he has done for us this year. I think he matches up well against his club and with his -- you know, obviously the fastball, but more the split, the slider, you know, really good secondary options against this club, and I think it stacks up pretty well.