AL WILD CARD SERIES: MARINERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 7, 2022

Cal Raleigh

Eugenio Suarez

Rogers Centre

Seattle Mariners

Postgame Press Conference

Seattle Mariners - 4, Toronto Blue Jays - 0

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for Eugenio and Cal and the rest of the Suárez family.

Q. Hey, Cal, I wanted to ask you about Luis today and just the uptick on his velocity, the way that sinker was moving and just -- Scott I think probably put it best, that he was in command the entire game. From your perspective, how did that sort of look?

CAL RALEIGH: He was awesome. We were super excited when we got him at the trade deadline. Geno and Wink both said really great things about him. Obviously, he's nasty. He was really good tonight. He had all four going, and he's really fun to catch. He's just a great person. It was a lot of fun.

Q. Cal, what's the past week of your life been like? You hit that homer that sends the Mariners to the playoffs. You become all the more mainstream in Seattle and then you have this big homer here today. Just kind of walk us through what the past week has been like for you.

CAL RALEIGH: It's been a little crazy. I think the biggest thing, though, is just ending the drought was amazing, and getting to do that with my teammates.

Obviously, coming here and getting this win was huge. It's awesome. We're not done yet. We're going to focus for tomorrow and try to get one more.

Q. Cal, twice where Bichette got up with runners on, a pair of runners on, and same with Guerrero. Luis throws these fastballs, and they look outer half, and they just cut right in on the hands. Is he trying to do that? How difficult is that on hitters when it looks like a strike away and all of a sudden it's on their hands?

CAL RALEIGH: Yeah, any time a pitcher has something they can go hard into a hitter, it's going to give them a lot of trouble.

He had that sinker working really well tonight. On top of that with the four-seam. He has two different fastballs, and when they're in the upper 90s and he is locating them like he does, it's hard to hit.

Q. Cal, the two opportunities that the Jays had with Guerrero coming to the plate with a couple on and then Bichette, what was the kind of game plan in that situation? What were you guys trying to do there?

CAL RALEIGH: Yeah, we had a game plan going into it. We had a lot of meetings. Talked about what we wanted to do and how to approach it.

Hats off to everyone; to Luis, myself, the coaching staff, the analytic guys. We did a great job game-planning. We just have to take it back into tomorrow.

Q. Geno, can you talk a little bit about that first inning at-bat, what you saw, and just the importance of tacking on runs there and getting that early lead and how that helped sustain you guys?

EUGENIO SUAREZ: It definitely did. That first at-bat helped everybody. The crowd was loud, and I just want to do my best, not try much. Just put the ball in play.

When I saw Julio at second base, I just tried to use all the feels, and I was ready to compete against Manoah. I know he likes that fastball, and I was ready to hit.

It was a big, big hit right there to give the lead to Luis and tell everybody, like, we're here to compete. It was great.

After that Cal did a really good job on that at-bat, long 3-2, and he was ready to hit that fastball too. That was our plan today, you know, compete. Don't let the fastball beat us, and we compete together, and that was great.

Q. Geno, you played with Luis, and you have seen him good in Cincinnati. Have you seen him this good? He had 15 pitches over 100 miles an hour, and he was just kind of making the ball move. Have you seen him this good before?

EUGENIO SUAREZ: I mean, I don't think so. Today was unbelievable. I know he can touch 100, 101, but today was unbelievable. That sinker at 99, 100 was with a lot of moving, that was great to see, fun to see. I know how hard he is working, how passionate every time he is pitching is. He just loves to compete, and he make a really good pitch today.

That fastball was there. Not only the fastball, slider too, and the sinker was great for him. You know, it's so fun to watch him pitching.

Q. Cal, Scott just said that as the at-bat in the first inning progressed it reminded him of your at-bat Friday night. Did you get that same feeling at all?

CAL RALEIGH: Yeah, they were both 3-2 counts. Different pitches, but Geno did a great job of getting it rolling. He got a hit and Geno knocked him in, and that kind of relaxed me. Once we got that run in, I kind of took a deep breath, and I was, like, We're rolling. Geno got us going. Feels like normal.

Yeah, it felt good. I was looking for a heater and trying not to do too much with it. Kind of similar to the other night. Got a good pitch and hit it.

Q. Cal, now that the nickname is printed on T-shirts and everything, are you surprised how mainstream it is given going back to the day that Jarred first called you that?

CAL RALEIGH: I didn't think it would take off like that. It's not what I expected, but it is what it is. Kind of embrace it now.

Q. (Question in Spanish)

EUGENIO SUAREZ: (Answer in Spanish)

Q. Just one last thing for the two of you guys. I did a walk-off interview with J.P. Crawford, and he said our goal is the World Series. He said we just openly talked about it. What are the missions for this team, and what are some of the conversations that go on in that clubhouse?

EUGENIO SUAREZ: Like always, we always talk about the good vibes. Keeping the energy, compete every day, not try to do too much, play our game and compete. That's more important to come every day to the game and compete against each other, and after that we see the results.

We are here, and we got the W today. It was important to us.

CAL RALEIGH: Just what Geno said. We've had good vibes since spring training. It's kind of what we've rolled on. He has been a big part of that.

We got a good group of guys in there. Obviously, that's what we want to get to. That's the goal, get to the World Series and keep going. I think we did a good job tonight starting step one.