TORONTO – The Mariners, on paper, had no business winning Game 1 of this American League Championship Series.
Two nights earlier, they had played a five-hour, 15-inning marathon to close out the Detroit Tigers in the AL Division Series. They then traveled more than 2,000 miles on Saturday after a flight delay that meant they didn’t get into their team hotel in Toronto until almost midnight Sunday.
The Toronto Blue Jays, meanwhile, had three days off coming into Sunday after thumping the New York Yankees in their ALDS, with their well-rested ace, Kevin Gausman, ready to pitch at home, where the Blue Jays had the league’s best record during the regular season.
The only real pitching option for the Mariners was their No. 5 starter, Bryce Miller, who was given the Game 1 start on short rest against a Blue Jays team who lit him up for seven runs in his most recent start against them, back in May.
The math just didn’t add up for the Mariners.
Then they went out and beat the Blue Jays anyway.
Cal Raleigh continued to torment the Blue Jays with another home run at the Rogers Centre, and Miller was sensational on short rest to lead the Mariners to a 3-1 victory and move them one step closer to the franchise’s first World Series berth.
“We’re a tough team one through nine,” Raleigh said on Fox after the game. “Pitchers came out today and really, really impressed us. Can’t say enough about Bryce Miller on short rest, giving us six strong innings.”
After Raleigh’s homer in the sixth inning, Jorge Polanco drove in Julio Rodriguez for the go-ahead run. Polanco added another RBI single in the eighth inning to drive in Randy Arozarena and extend the M’s lead to 3-1.
It would be hard to overstate the significance of Miller’s performance Sunday night – and what domino effect his six sharp innings mean for the rest of the Mariners pitching staff.
Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo both pitched in relief in Friday night’s 15-inning victory over the Tigers, after George Kirby threw five-plus solid innings.
And with Bryan Woo unavailable until late in this ALCS, at the earliest, the Mariners needed some length out of Miller to ease the burden on an exhausted bullpen.
The Mariners were simply hoping Miller could get them through the Blue Jays’ lineup two times. He gave them so much more than that.
George Springer ambushed Miller’s first pitch of the game, sending a well-located 97-mph fastball over the wall in right field to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead.
Miller needed 27 pitches to get through the first inning, working around two walks to limit the damage.
He was dominant the rest of the way, retiring 18 of the final 20 batters he faced, and throwing first-pitch strikes to 18 of the 23 batters he faced over six complete innings.
The Blue Jays had only one hit after Springer’s leadoff homer, and none after the second inning.
The Mariners trailed 1-0 in the sixth when Raleigh belted a low splitter from Gausman way out to right field, 420 feet away, for his ninth career home run at the Rogers Centre, and fourth in 15 at-bats against Gausman.
Gausman was also the Blue Jays’ starter on Oct. 8, 2022, when the Mariners overcame an 8-1 deficit in a 10-9 win, the largest come-from-behind victory by a road team in MLB playoff history to clinch the AL Wild Card Series win and stun the Blue Jays.
It was a similar feeling Sunday night, and the Mariners are starting to make a habit out of this on the road.
They silenced the Houston crowd in late September in a three-game sweep of their longtime bully, the Astros, to take control of the AL West.
They kept the Detroit crowd largely in their seats for two games last week in the ALDS.
And they made the crowd of 44,474 inside the Rogers Center a nonfactor in Game 1.
Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz combined to throw three perfect innings to close it out, and M’s pitchers retired 23 of the final 24 batters.
Gilbert to start Game 2
Logan Gilbert will take the ball for the Mariners on Monday in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series as Seattle looks to take the first two games of the series.
M’s manager Dan Wilson announced the decision to go with Gilbert for Game 2 following the M’s 3-1 win over Toronto in Game 1 on Sunday night. Wilson declined to announce the starter before the game and wanted to see the state of his pitching staff before making the decision official.
The news is somewhat surprising, considering Gilbert threw 34 pitches over two scoreless innings in relief to help the Mariners secure Friday’s epic 15-inning Game 5 win over the Tigers. Gilbert also got the win in Game 3 of the ALDS, allowing just one run over six innings while striking out seven.
Gilbert’s lone appearance against the Blue Jays this season came on April 19 when he went 42/3 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out nine.