TORONTO — On Friday, the Seattle Mariners played 15 innings to clinch a trip here for the American League Championship Series. On Saturday, they flew across the continent, arriving at their hotel near midnight after a three-hour flight delay.
For all of that, they were strong, sharp and splendid on Sunday, stifling the Blue Jays, 3-1, in Game 1 of the ALCS at Rogers Centre.
Starter Bryce Miller, working on three days’ rest for the first time in his career, allowed a homer on his first pitch and then nothing else over six masterful innings. After George Springer connected in the first, Miller held the Blue Jays to one single and three walks, easily the best of his 20 starts this season.
The Mariners had managed just two first-inning singles off Kevin Gausman until the sixth inning, when Cal Raleigh cancelled out Springer’s blast with a two-out homer. Jorge Polanco – whose single capped Friday’s marathon clincher against the Detroit Tigers – took care of the rest.
Polanco drove in the go-ahead run again on Sunday, singling in the sixth to bring home Julio Rodríguez, who had walked to chase Gausman and gone to second on a wild pitch by Brendon Little. Polanco delivered again in the eighth, singling home Randy Arozarena, who had stolen second and third after a leadoff walk.
By then, the Mariners’ late-inning bullpen trio had gone to work on the Blue Jays, who went down in order against Gabe Speier and Matt Brash before closer Andrés Muñoz locked up the save. The Mariners retired 23 of the final 24 Blue Jays to come to the plate, quieting a lineup that had stomped the New York Yankees to get here.
Raleigh dumps some payback on Jays, Schneider: They say you don’t tug on Superman’s cape – and, to be fair, Blue Jays manager John Schneider couldn’t have known just what he was doing in early 2023, when he noted after a loss to Seattle that Raleigh was hitting .200 “with a lot of strikeout potential.” That sparked a back-and-forth with Raleigh, who showed off his superpowers in Game 1.
Raleigh slammed 60 homers in the regular season and another in the ALDS, when he batted .381. He was at it again in the ALCS opener, singling off Gausman in the first and then drilling a 420-foot homer on a two-out, 2-2 splitter in the sixth to tie Game 1.
A guy with 60-homer pop is dangerous to everyone, but Raleigh has done extensive damage to Gausman in his career. Including two postseason clashes, Raleigh is now 8 for 17 (.471) with four homers off Gausman.
Schneider – who said before Game 1 that he had “a ton of respect” for Raleigh – was right about the whiffs, though: Raleigh did strike out in the third and eighth innings.
Mariners capitalize on Jays’ questionable call to pull their ace at the first sign of trouble: It’s gotta be tough to be a postseason pitcher once the middle innings start to come around. At the first sign of trouble, you’re out. It seems to happen almost every game around the fifth or sixth – we saw in Seattle’s ALDS, when only one Mariner starter (Logan Gilbert) made it through six innings. And we saw it in Game 1 on Sunday, when Schneider pulled Gausman after Raleigh’s homer and Rodríguez’s walk with two outs in the sixth.
The move backfired immediately, as Rodríguez took second on Little’s wild pitch, which was followed by Polanco’s go-ahead, RBI single.
Before Raleigh’s homer, Gausman had retired 16 Mariner hitters in a row. Gausman had thrown only 76 pitches, and he is the Jays’ No. 1 starter. They’re paying him $22 million a year for a reason. You really have to wonder why Little was a better option at that point in the game.
Schneider’s move looked even more curious in the bottom of the sixth, when Seattle’s Miller – the team’s No. 5 starter, who was working on three days’ rest for the first time in his career – walked Addison Barger with two outs. That’s the same point at which Gausman was pulled, and yet Miller stayed in to face Alejandro Kirk, who flied out to left to end the inning.
But given Gausman’s previous issues in the sixth, it made some sense
For the third time in four playoff starts for the Blue Jays, Gausman’s outing sidetracked with two outs in the sixth inning.
In Gausman’s four postseason outings for the Jays, he’s logged 21 innings with a 4.28 ERA — largely respectable. But in the 2022 wild-card round against the Mariners, Gausman left with the bases loaded in the sixth. Seattle proceeded to cash four runs in the inning, on the way to a 10-9 comeback win that ended Toronto’s season.
In Game 1 of the 2025 ALDS, Gausman loaded the bases once again in the sixth, striking out Aaron Judge before Schneider turned to the bullpen. Louis Varland ultimately snuffed the Yankees’ rally with a 100-mph strikeout. On Sunday, the bullpen didn’t bail out Gausman, with Polanco’s single tacking another run on Gausman’s record.
Gausman has been much the ace the Jays needed this year, especially in September and early October. But the sixth innings continue to torment him in the postseason. He must push past that October barrier to soak up ace-like innings for the Jays, or Schneider will continue to warm up the bullpen after the fifth.
Offensive silence costs Blue Jays an opportunity against tired Mariners pitching
It was an opportunity for the Jays. The Mariners just slogged through a 15-inning game, using three starting pitchers and forced to use their seemingly worst starter on three days rest.
The Jays were handed the chance to slam home another Game 1 victory and work deep into Seattle’s depleted bullpen. Instead, Toronto’s bats fell silent. Springer homered on Miller’s first pitch and Anthony Santander singled in the second. They didn’t record another hit all night. They finished with just one run, their fewest of the postseason and least since Sept. 24.
In isolation, Toronto’s offensive silence cost them just one game. There should be plenty of chances to wake up the bats. But Sunday could’ve been — perhaps should’ve been — a soft ALCS entry point.
The Jays are set to face much more difficult starters than a poorly rested Miller in upcoming games. As this series pushes on, the Mariners’ bullpen will further recover from the 15-inning affair. Instead of a series stranglehold, the Jays left Game 1 with a dropped opportunity.
If playoff pedigree matters, Springer gives the Jays an edge: The first pitch jumped off Springer’s bat, released like a hungry animal from its cage. Victor Robles gave the deep fly a courtesy jog, but its destination was clear from contact.
Springer’s first-inning homer, bashed 385 feet, was the first leadoff blast in Blue Jays postseason history. It came off a 97.3 mph pitch, the hardest delivery Springer has turned for a home run this season. Halfway through October, the 35-year-old Springer’s bat speed isn’t waning. His power, clearly, is still there.
Springer made a career of these October moments, adding his latest on Sunday. He sits tied for 12th among active hitters with 72 career postseason games played. He has 21 postseason homers and 41 RBI. Mookie Betts is the only player left in the postseason field with more October games played.
Springer wasn’t brilliant in Toronto’s Division Series win over the New York Yankees, notching three hits in 20 plate appearances. He homered once, late in Toronto’s Game 2 blowout. But starting with the first pitch Toronto saw on Sunday, Springer looked more like his previously established October form. If Springer’s playoff pedigree leaks into this Blue Jays run, it could mean a big surge for their offence.