K.J. Wright: Mariners’ Game 1 could be ‘good’ loss like 2012 Hawks had

There aren’t many moments in Seattle sports history that have been as much of a punch to the gut for fans as the Mariners’ ALDS Game 1 loss was Tuesday night.

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We could list them off (Sonics against the Nuggets, Seahawks against the Patriots, etc.), but in actuality, those losses were much more final than the M’s going down 1-0 in the best-of-five series against the Astros. So was the loss that former Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright thought of that he was personally a part of when he saw what happened with the Mariners.

“The 2012 loss, that was a good loss for us,” Wright said.

He was referring to the 2012 divisional round of the NFC playoffs (played in January 2013) when the Seahawks lost 30-28 to the Falcons in Atlanta despite nearly coming all the way back from a 20-0 deficit. The Hawks at the time were young and on the rise, finishing 11-5 that season, and the experience of that loss to the Falcons certainly helped them the next year when they won Seattle’s first Super Bowl championship.

“It sounds pretty bizarre, but that was a really good loss because it made us even more hungry,” Wright said. “It showed us, like, ‘Man, we are a really, really good football team, and we just lost to a tough opponent’ that went on to do great things. But, ‘Man, this is an opportunity for us to get back to the drawing board, add to what we have,’ and we won the Super Bowl the next year. … So there’s some good losses that you can learn from and there’s some other losses that are hard to overcome.”

The really fortunate thing for the Mariners, who much like that 2012 Seahawks team are young and on the rise, is they can have that kind of heartbreaking loss and still rebound in the same postseason.

“The beauty of the MLB is that in the playoffs, you get a series. It’s not a one and done where you’re going home, taking a trip to Cabo,” Wright said. “You have another opportunity to get back to the drawing board, another game on the road, let’s get this one, tie the series up and get it 1-1 coming back to Seattle where the fans are gonna be ready for them.”

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Essentially, the M’s have a chance now to show just how ready they are on the big stage.

“In this situation, first time in the playoffs, you’re on the road, you’ve got the win in your hands up four with two innings left – you just think, ‘OK, automatic (up) 1-0. And then (the walk-off) home run, that’s hard. That’s really hard,” Wright said. “But the thing that I’m really looking forward to seeing is the character and the resiliency of these men in this locker room (the rest of the series).”

You can listen to the full K.J. Wright Show in the podcast at this link or in the player below.

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