AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS VS MARINERS

October 7, 2025

Logan Gilbert

Comerica Park

Seattle Mariners

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Mariners - 8, Tigers - 4

Q. Logan, I'm sure a lot of your life before pro ball, you were able to get by without using your fastball. At what point did maybe you switch up your mentality about pitching backwards and pitching backwards so offensively?

LOGAN GILBERT: Yeah. First off, I've just got to say glory to God. I couldn't do this without him.

But, yeah, it's kind of crazy coming in and basically only throwing a fastball in '21. And then learning the slider I have now and really feeling good about that. And there were times I actually feel like I've gotten away from the fastball, so I kind of had to go back to that.

But it was nice trying to work everything in there tonight, and Cal always does a great job seeing what's working, what we need to go to, so I just try to follow his lead.

Q. Logan, you've talked a couple times about, you know, having the strikeout stuff, but just trying to work your way back to be able to go deeper into outings. Tonight, especially with it being a playoff game, did it really feel like vintage Logan Gilbert, so to speak?

LOGAN GILBERT: I mean, I felt pretty good. The key is getting ahead, and honestly I didn't do a great job of that, but after that I felt like I was able to make pitches when I needed to.

In a game like this, you just don't want to get deep counts all the time and beat yourself and walk guys. So I tried to just force contact and make him swing it, and the defense played great behind me.

Q. Logan, when Carpenter came up there with the traffic on, did you have it in your mind an idea of how you were going to attack him coming in, based on what you had seen from him already in the first two games?

LOGAN GILBERT: Yeah. I wanted to get the splitter, and I felt like he was tracking it pretty good, actually. And some of them weren't super competitive to him especially.

But the slider worked pretty good, and I thankfully got him on a fastball up to the -- we saw him hit a fastball for a homer earlier in the series, but I got it to a good spot today.

But he's a great hitter. You've got to make your pitches, and I felt like I executed when I needed to.

Q. Was Dan going to come get you there?

LOGAN GILBERT: I always want to assume that I'm going to keep going, and it's still early in the game, but I know we have Gabe down there too who's great against lefties. So you never really know how it's going to shake out. But I just want to assume I'm always going as far as I can and be aggressive.

Q. Logan, between your outing and Munoz slamming the door at the end and offense contributions up and down the lineup, how does that typify what the Mariners have become at this point and so many key contributors?

LOGAN GILBERT: Yeah, it's a huge game, a lot of momentum. And I've been saying it for a while, this is the most complete team I've been on and seen.

Our offense did amazing, gave me a good lead to work there. J.P., Geno, so good at baseball and great teammate too. And Cal doing what he does, of course.

So just having all those guys. Such a great lineup. The defense played great. So like you said, I think it's kind of the game that shows how complete our team is.

Q. Logan, J.P.'s been here your whole time in Seattle and even before that. What does he represent to this team? How important is he in sort of setting the tone for a guy who's been here a long time?

LOGAN GILBERT: Yeah. He does everything. Like you said, setting the tone. He's the spark plug, a leader on the team, a guy that when he goes, the whole team follows. And he always plays great defense and gets us going on offense like that too. And just a great leader, vocal guy, all that kind of stuff. So he brings everything to the table, really.

Q. With the rain delay messing up your routine, what did you do to stay loose?

LOGAN GILBERT: Yes. It felt like it took forever. Especially before the game, you get kind of antsy, and we just kept going later and later.

But it really wasn't too bad. I tried to assume that we were about to play in the next 30 minutes, and just keep doing that over and over. So I tried to stay loose, stretching and throwing plyo balls and that kind of stuff. So not ideal, but it really wasn't the worst.

Q. Logan, you mentioned that you went out trying to force contact tonight. What did you find effective in doing that?

LOGAN GILBERT: Like I said, again, Cal did a great job. I think he knows other teams really well and what to go to.

I was just trying to keep the ball down for the most part, and I think I did a pretty good job at that. A couple got away from me, but the slider down fastball felt pretty good, trying to attack them.

Like I said, I didn't get a ton of first-pitch strikes, which I try to focus on. But after that, I felt like I did a pretty good job making pitches when I needed to.