Live: Mariners-Tigers ALDS Game 3: Live updates, score, how to watch MLB playoffs

DETROIT — After a day away, Josh Naylor is back with the Mariners and back in the lineup for Game 3 this afternoon.

Naylor and his wife have been expecting their first child, which was due Saturday. Naylor told The Times last week he planned to fly to Arizona to be with his wife during labor.

Naylor away from the team during Monday’s off-day, but he’s rejoined the team here in Detroit for Game 3.

During a pregame interview Tuesday afternoon, Mariners manager Dan Wilson declined to offer specifics on Naylor’s situation. MLB does not open the clubhouse for pregame media access during the postseason, so Naylor won’t be able for comment until after Tuesday’s game.

“I would just say I’m sure Josh would be happy to talk about whatever, so I would just point you in that direction at this moment,” Wilson said. “But,we’re excited to have him back. We’re excited he’s here with us and excited to have him back in the lineup.”

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The Mariners might not have Seattle’s home-field advantage on Tuesday, but they’ll have some familiarity in the rain. 

Like an homage to the rainy city, cloudy skies and a chance of showers follow the M’s to Comerica Park in Detroit as they prepare to play Game 3 of the American League Division Series Tuesday afternoon. 

A thunderstorm is possible early in the afternoon, the National Weather Service’s Detroit office forecast. The chance of rain is 60%.

First pitch is scheduled for 1:08 p.m. Pacific time, or 4:08 p.m. local time, but it’s unknown if the wet weather will affect Game 3’s start time as of Tuesday morning.

“Things look much more promising than they did 24 hours ago,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’re going to play. We don’t know when we’re going to start.”

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DETROIT — Julio Rodriguez has been listening.

He’s willingly accepted the advice. He’s shrugged off the compliments. He’s used the criticism as fuel for motivation. He’s heard about who he’s supposed to be as a hitter and what he hasn’t been as a player.

He’s collected it all, thrown out what wasn’t needed or wanted, kept what was important and processed it into who he wants to be and made it his own.

Even with all of his success, he’s continually searched for his identity as a hitter to find the consistency that he craves and fans demand.

Has he found it this season? Is it something he can carry into future seasons?

“I would say, yes,” he said. “As a baseball player, you’re always going to have to evolve. You’re always going to have to keep up with the game and make adjustments.”

But this feels right to him.

The Mariners are very comfortable with it.

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DETROIT — In seasons past, Logan Gilbert would’ve obsessed over the deviation to his daily routine and work in between outings. His bag of tools used to fine-tune his body and mechanics — two different sizes of plastic balls filled with water, a weighted mitten, a towel with a baseball attached to it, weighted balls and more — would’ve been emptied each day as he tried to keep himself prepared over such a lengthy break in between starts.  

But now at the wise old age of 28, he’s grown sanguine to such disruptions. Having to wait through the wild-card round, then the first two games of the American League Division Series before starting Game 3 on Tuesday at Comerica Park might have been a source of frustration in years past.

“Maybe a few years ago it would be a little harder for me,” he said. “I think my first and second year I had some learning to do in that regard, but now I don’t really feel like I’m a slave to my routine or anything like that. It’s just normal.”

Gilbert last faced hitters on Sept. 27 in the penultimate game of the regular season. Held to a limited pitch count because the game’s result was meaningless, he worked five innings, allowing two runs on four hits with a walk and five strikeouts against the Dodgers.

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DETROIT — Before they saw Gabe Speier’s resurgence on the mound, Mariners pitching coaches Pete Woodworth and Trent Blank heard about it straight from the lefty’s mouth.

This was back in February, at the outset of spring training, and Woodworth and Blank were going through their welcome-back meetings with each pitcher, discussing winter work and setting goals for the season.

The meetings are fairly routine, maybe even a bit rote.

“But every now and then a guy will come in there and say, ‘This is what I’m [expletive] doing. … I made some mistakes last year; I am not doing that again. This is who I am, and this is what I’m going to do.’ … And that’s what that meeting was [with Speier],” Woodworth said Monday afternoon outside the Comerica Park visitors clubhouse.

“That kind of shook us in our seats.”

Speier’s prediction morphed into conviction, and the Mariners are benefiting from the best season of the 30-year-old’s career.

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