In the MLB postseason, teams have to be ready to adjust on the fly. This is doubly true for do-or-die elimination games, such as Friday night’s decisive Game 5 between the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers.
In a game where one run might decide the difference between your season ending and your quest for the World Series carrying on, a team might have to pinch run for a better player than you normally would, or bring in a starting pitcher out of the bullpen to keep the game going, or any number of other bold strategies we only see in the playoffs.
And sometimes, in extreme circumstances, you have to let the loser fish win the mascot race.
The Mariners have hosted the Salmon Run—a mascot race around the warning track—at every home game at T-Mobile Park since the start of the 2024 season. Like many mascot races, the Salmon Run includes a lovable loser, who earns their status as a crowd favorite despite never coming in first. In Seattle, that’s Humpy.
As Friday’s game carried into the 14th inning, someone high atop the production team made a call—there would be a second “Salmon Run.” And this time, Humpy would win.
With the initial Salmon Run taking place before the game went to extras, it was decided that a second race would be run in the middle of the 15th inning, at which point the game was still tied 2–2 with the Mariners up to bat.
Despite falling behind early, the other salmon contenders ran into each other late, and Humpy was able to sneak through for their first ever victory. The crowd was electric.
They let Humpy finally win the salmon run for the vibes lmfao pic.twitter.com/4eGmv8NoFT
— Dae (@daeshikjr) October 11, 2025
just watched humpy win the salmon run nothing is real anymore my night is saved pic.twitter.com/hqVnZNBggc
— alex ⚡️ (@electrifiedtnt) October 11, 2025
screaming crying throwing up https://t.co/rpwUhV1Zm9
— Buoy (@SEAbuoy) October 11, 2025
Mariner stadium ops making this call won the most important game in 2.5 decades https://t.co/Z6HXTX3ySx
— Mariner Muse - y (@MarinerMuse) October 11, 2025
Less than 10 minutes later, the Mariners would finally score the walk-off run that sent them to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2001.
Obviously, it’s the players on the field that deserve the most credit for the win, but I do think it’s worth shouting out Humpy and whatever production staff was behind the decision to run a second race.
Before Humpy’s victory, things at T-Mobile Park were tense. The Mariners had gotten runners in scoring position several times in extra innings, but never able to bring them home. The ballpark was still packed despite the game nearly entering its sixth hour.
When you have a loser in the mascot race and you want them to win, you can only fire that bullet once, but given the circumstances, there was simply no better time for the Mariners’ stadium ops team to pull the trigger. The result was an explosion of joy across the tens of thousands of fans at T-Mobile Park, which also served as a collective exhale after two hours of baseball that were as edge-of-your-seat as the sport can get.
The gambit worked. Humpy and the Mariners left Friday’s game as winners. Who doesn’t love an underdog story?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Humpy the Salmon’s Historic Mascot Race Win Helped Spark Mariners' Victory.
