SEATTLE – You win this round, Canada.
There may not have been quite as many Toronto fans at T-Mobile Park as there have been in years past, but in a time that features some tensions between the United States and its neighbor to the north, the Canadian faithful who did make the trip had plenty to cheer about on Sunday as the Blue Jays dispatched the Mariners in easy fashion.
Thanks to a towering three-run homer by George Springer off a struggling Bryce Miller and a dominant pitching outing by Toronto long reliever Eric Lauer, the Blue Jays defeated the Mariners 9-1 on 15 hits to finish off a three-game sweep in front of 36,823 fans.
The sweep marks the first three-game skid for the Mariners since they dropped three straight games in San Francisco from April 4-6. After nine straight series victories, the Mariners started the homestand with a resounding thud.
Miller started off the game in solid fashion with a 1-2–3 first inning, before the second inning brought trouble.
He got the first two outs of the frame by coaxing a 1-3 putout from George Springer and striking out Alejandro Kirk, but Miller gave up consecutive singles to Nathan Lukes and Ernie Clement, before Myles Straw drove in Lukes with a single of his own for a 1-0 Blue Jays lead.
Mariners second baseman Dylan Moore tied it with a solo homer in the third that chased starter José Ureña from the ballgame, but the Blue Jays took the lead back in the fourth on a sacrifice fly from Ernie Clement, scoring Kirks from third.
The Blue Jays finally broke the game open in the fifth inning, when George Springer followed a single from Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and a walk from Addison Barger, with a blistering 416 foot home run into the left-field bleachers that traveled 111.7 miles per hour off the bat to give Toronto a 5-1 lead.
After allowing a walk and single to start the sixth inning, Miller was pulled in favor of Collin Snider, who quickly allowed a two-run double to one-time Mariner Jonatan Clase.
Miller was charged with seven earned runs allowed on eight hits, with two walks and two strikeouts.
Miller’s fastball velocity has been down significantly this season from last year. After averaging 95.2 last season, he is averaging 94.6 on the heater this season. The fastball that Springer hit out of the park came in at 92.7 miles per hour.
Barger padded Toronto’s lead with a solo homer in the seventh. Springer followed that with a double to right field, and then scored on an RBI single from Lukes to extend the Blue Jays lead to 9-1.
Lauer came into the game with no outs in the third inning and shut the Mariners offense down, allowing just one hits and zero runs over 4 ⅔ innings, with no walks and five strikeouts. After Arozarena’s single to lead off the fourth inning,
Lauer retired the final 10 hitters faced. Yariel Rodriguez then came in and pitched a perfect 1 1/3 innings, and Braydon Fisher pitched the ninth to finish off the Blue Jays win.
Leo Rivas pitched the ninth for the Mariners and allowed three singles and a walk in a scoreless inning of work.
J.P. Crawford singled in the bottom of the ninth, to give the Mariners their first baserunner since the fourth inning.