The Mariners have never been here before.
On October 13, 2025, exactly 30 years ago, they won their second game of the ALCS to take a 2-1 lead. Today, with their 10-3 dismantling of the Blue Jays the Mariners take a 2-0 lead. It is the best position they have ever been in during the postseason. As the ALCS now comes to Seattle for three games the M’s need only go 2-1 at home, something they’ve done countless times before. Folks, the M’s have never had it this good.
After the ALDS ended in a grueling,
grinding 15 inning slog everyone, including most Mariners fans, expected this Championship Series to get off to slow start for the Mariners. The Blue Jays had just come off a dominant offensive performance over the Evil Empire and were ready to dole out the punishment again at home. And yet, the Mariners prevailed.
Now the Mariners took the field again in the Rogers Centre and it was the Blue Jays who were reeling. Today’s game two got off to the hottest of starts for Seattle when Randy wore ball four on his elbow and Cal walked on a steady diet of outside fastballs. Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage, who carved through the Bronx bombers to the tune of 11 strikeouts in 5.1 innings suddenly found himself facing Julio Rodríguez with two on and nobody out.
Maybe he thought he could breathe easy after Julio stared down strikes one and two over the plate. Perhaps that sense of security led to him bouncing an 0-2 splitter way in front of the dirt, a pitch he was lucky Alejandro Kirk managed to corral. After spiking the splitter for ball one, Yesavage aimed to throw it again, but this time for a strike. He aimed high. Far too high, as a matter of fact.
Watch the way he slowly, resignedly turns his head to follow the ball. He knew what he did. And he knew exactly where that pitch was going to land.
For those keeping count, that was Julio’s second home run of this postseason and his fourth, fifth, and sixth RBI. It’s safe to say that Second Half Julio extends into October.
With a commanding 3-0 lead after the first inning it seemed like the Mariners would, for the second game in a row, get to ride their outstanding starting pitching to as relaxing of a playoff win as possible. However, while Logan Gilbert was able to improve on Bryce Miller’s game one outing and keep George Springer in the yard — holding him to a leadoff double rather than a homer — he was not able to prevent Springer from scoring.
Nathan Lukes followed Springer with a softly hit ground ball to Josh Naylor at first base. With Logan rushing to cover the bag and Lukes charging up the line, Naylor rushed the flip to Gilbert, throwing it behind him and allowing Springer to score and Lukes to advance to second base. Now once again facing a runner on second and nobody out, Gilbert forced a groundout from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. which moved Lukes to third before striking out Addison Barger on five pitches.
Throughout the inning, and indeed his whole start, Gilbert did not have full control of his slider. It refused to break to the side at all and with just a vertical component to it, he couldn’t distinguish it from his splitter. That let the Jays sit back for the split, knowing that if the pitch was a slightly faster slider, they’d end up shooting it the other way. Which, with two outs, is exactly what Alejandro Kirk did when a first pitch slider from Logan caught far, far too much of the plate. Kirk’s two out single scored Lukes from third and suddenly that 3-0 lead turned into a simply 3-2. Too close for comfort.
Gilbert tried to bounce back in the second inning. But the slider still wasn’t sharp. It didn’t help matters that Ernie Clement led off the inning by reaching for a splitter in the other batter’s box and poking it into centerfield for a single. A pair of groundouts moved him to third base before Nathan Lukes once again stepped to the plate. And this time, he wouldn’t be cheated.
Lukes tied the game and for the second inning in a row Gilbert was on the back foot. Vlad Jr., Toronto’s superstar, battled with Logan for a nine pitch at bat that mercifully ended with a groundout to end the inning and stop the bleeding. But would the tourniquet hold?
The Mariners threatened in the third inning with runners on the corners with two outs before Eugenio Suárez ambushed a fastball for a 101 mph line drive. Jays center fielder Daulton Varsho took a bad route to the ball and it nearly — so, so nearly — dropped for a hit, but Varsho recovered from his blunder just quick enough to make a sliding grab and end the inning. Varsho makes a career out of that kind of play, but the Mariners were surely hoping that his luck wouldn’t hold.
But finally and mercifully, normalcy reigned in Toronto. Gilbert sat the side down in order in the third and fourth innings, using just 12 and 11 pitches in each. The Mariners had the top of the order due up in the fifth inning and it was perhaps then that the baseball gods took a side in today’s contest.
Randy ambushed a first pitch slider from Yesavage that stayed over the plate and sent it bouncing to Andrés Giménez at shortstop. Giménez is a great fielder, in the 86th percentile according to Statcast Fielding Run Value. But Posedion shook the earth beneath his feet, and Giménez fired the ball past Vlad Jr. at first and into the Mariners dugout, where it hit Geno sitting on the top step. As the ball was called out of play, Randy advanced to second base. But Blue Jays manager and noted coward John Schneider issued a challenge, perhaps hoping that the call would be overturned and Randy would be forced back to first base. The replay officials in New York took one look at the play, likely laughed at the challenge, and quickly issued a ruling of “call confirmed.”
Schneider then, reeling from last night’s game-tying blast by Cal Raleigh, issued a free pass to the Big Dumper before finally replacing Yesavage with Louis Varland. Real heads will remember that at this point in the game, Julio Rodriguez, the batter to follow Cal, was just 3 innings removed from a three-run home run in this very same game, with the very same runners on base. But luckily for both Varland and Schneider, on 2-2 Julio was taking all the way and stared down strike three. But here’s a fun fact about the Seattle Mariners baseball club. They can all hit home runs.
Once again, for those keeping count at home that is Jorge’s third home run of the postseason and his sixth, seventh, and eighth RBI of the campaign. Thank you for playing, Schneider. Better luck on Wednesday.
With the 3-run lead restored in bombastic fashion, Josh Naylor redeemed himself for his first inning error by making this diving grab to get George Springer for the first out in the bottom of the fifth. Josh Naylor, for better or worse, will always try to make the spectacular play at first base.
Let’s linger here for a moment. It’s not often baseball gives you the opportunity to so obviously and completely redeem yourself. Toronto scored their first run after giving up a three-run bomb by Naylor missing a throw and failing to record the first out. Now, just roughly 90 minutes later, he makes this play to record the first out right after a second three-run homer restores the lead. The only way baseball could allow Josh to more completely atone would be if he put runs on the board himself.
Ah, there we go. Happy Thanksgiving to Josh Naylor, who grew up just a short distance away from the Rogers Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. We’re certainly thankful you’re here.
You’ll notice the Mariners had a seventh run on the board in that clip. That was due to something completely awesome. A Mitch Garver leadoff triple. In the top of the sixth, Schneider reached for the bullpen phone and brought out left hander Mason Fluharty. Mariners manager Dan Wilson responded by bringing in the Garvman himself, the veteran who slugs lefties like it’s no one’s business. Off the bat, it seemed like this 102.6 mph, 404 ft batted ball was going to leave the yard. Watching Daulton Varsho try to track it down, it was clear he didn’t know where the ball was going to land. The answer ended up being roughly 3 feet to the right of where he was standing. Oops. Guess Varsho’s defensive luck did run out after all.
If it wasn’t clear enough at this point that the baseball gods had decided the Mariners would win this game, J.P. Crawford followed up Garver’s single by parachuting a sweeper off the plate into left field for an RBI single.
After Naylor’s home run put Toronto in a 6-run hole, John Schneider grew desperate and brought in Yariel Rodríguez to try and get just two outs. Instead, Rodríguez issued three walks in a row to load the bases. Only one run came of it (on a J.P. Crawford sac fly), but it did force Schneider to call his bullpen yet again and bring in Chris Bassitt, a surprising arm to expose in such a one-sided clobbering. All told the Blue Jays used 7 pitchers in today’s affair. And this after using 6 pitchers yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Mariners had the privlege of riding two scoreless innings each from Eduard Bazardo, birthday boy Carlos Vargas, and Emerson Hancock. With the off day tomorrow, suddenly it’s the Blue Jays who have to worry about bullpen rest while the Mariners only used a single leverage reliever. In a long, 7-game series, that extra exposure to Toronto’s best arms could mean good things for the Mariners.
What do we make of these first two games? How do we rationalize what we’re seeing on the field with our knowledge of nearly 50 years of Mariners history. I said at the top that this is the best position the Mariners have ever been in. The Mariners have never had a 2-game lead in the ALCS before. Like so many explorers before them, the Mariners have set off into uncharted waters with naught but stories and the stars to guide them.
The narrative from the national media after game one was that the Mariners “stole” a win. As if the pitching domination and timely hitting we all saw before was, like Toronto’s first run of the game, unearned. But tonight the Mariners put that notion to bed. After Logan’s rocky start, they unleashed a thunderous onslaught of scoring.
The Albatross is a seabird. Large, noble, and rare, it has shared its home among Mariners for hundreds of years. In Hawai’ian mythology, the Albatross is the sacred and divine manifestation of Kāne, the greatest of the gods. Should a Pacific Mariner be lost at sea, they need only follow Kāne to find their way back home or to new lands. Compared to that, a blue jay is just a bird lost at sea.
The Seattle Mariners are on their way home, trading the freshwater of Lake Ontario for the Salish Sea and the Pacific breeze. Will Kāne guide these Mariners further into uncharted waters?
