Mariners fall short as Blue Jays win 4-3 to advance to World Series

The Mariners seemingly had Game Seven in their grasp, but will now spend a painfully long offseason wondering about what could have been.

Three times the Seattle Mariners seemingly put themselves in position to eradicate the ghosts of past failures and finally advance to their first ever World Series appearance. First, when they held a 2-0 lead in this AL Championship Series after taking the first two games in Toronto.

Second, when the Mariners won Game Five 6-2 as a result of Eugenio Suárez’s dramatic grand slam in the bottom of the eighth. And finally, with them leading 3-1 through six innings on Monday evening in Game Seven, with just nine more outs separating them from the first AL pennant in franchise history.

Then, one mighty swing of the bat by the Blue Jays’ George Springer changed the trajectory of the game and the Mariners could not recover. As much as we wrote after the 6-2 Game Six loss that it’s not about “what if” or “what could have been” scenarios, this is all the M’s and their fans are now left to do during what will be a painfully long offseason.

What if Dan Wilson had allowed George Kirby to pitch one more inning after looking so good through four in allowed just four hits, a walk and one earned run? What could have been if Wilson had done what plenty of people knew in the moment should have been the case, and removed Bryan Woo after two innings instead of sending him out again.

Use of Mariners bullpen leads to the majority of questions

Of the two decisions the second was undoubtedly the more costly one, as Woo allowed two men to get into scoring position before finally being replaced with one out in the bottom of the seventh. It was then over to Eduardo Bazardo who, as tremendous as he’s been throughout this season, had been a bit more shaky of late during the playoffs and had pitched two innings just one night earlier.

Bazardo then threw what became the most consequential pitch of this entire season for the Mariners, with Springer blasting it over the left field wall to give the Blue Jays their first lead of the night with his thee-run homer. It proved to be the death blow to a stunned Mariners team, as the Blue Jays held on to win 4-3 and take their first AL pennant since 1993.

A crestfallen Bazardo spoke to the media postgame, trying to make sense of what happened. As per Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, he said:

“Yesterday, I threw the same pitch right there (to Springer) and it was a groundball. And today he got me. … One pitch changed, like, all my season. I never lost one game all season. And today, the most important game, I lost the game.”

Dan Wilson explains his rationale with Eduard Bazardo

We repeatedly questioned why Wilson got so much criticism in what was his first full season as a Major League manager, in fact manager at any level. At times it has felt unfair and even downright unnecessary, but for Game Seven specifically it’s a time when his decisions quite rightly come under the microscope with everything that was at stake.

As such, it had to be asked why Wilson turned to Bazardo when he did, given that the righty pitched a night earlier, combined with several Mariners starters and Andrés Muñoz being available. The M’s manager said:

“Bazardo’s been doing it all is season long and has been so consistent at it and he’s done such a good job all year. We felt really comfortable with him out there, the way he’s been throwing the ball, especially in this series, and it was a good spot for him.”

Objectively speaking you can at least understand Wilson’s rationale, but this was a time for thinking outside the box — not a particularly big box mind — and taking a different approach. Just to be clear though, despite pushing some wrong buttons on Monday evening, it doesn’t change the fact that overall he had a tremendous first full season as Mariners manager.

In fact no one has ever taken the Mariners so close to a first ever World Series berth and for that Wilson deserves plenty of credit, even though fairly or not, a lot of focus will remain on how he managed Game Seven versus the Blue Jays. It really is a shame for him and indeed everyone involved, in what was a special, special season in Seattle.

Mariners’ big guns came out to play early

It really had looked all set up to become an even more special season through six innings as the Mariners built their 3-1 advantage, and it was their big guns leading the charge. Josh Naylor gave the M’s an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first with a RBI single, then Julio Rodríguez reestablished the lead at 2-1 in the top of the third with a solo blast.

Next it was the turn of Cal Raleigh in the top of the fifth with his fifth home run of this postseason, to increase the M’s lead to 3-1. He may or may not be named AL MVP, but he now holds the all-time AL record for combined regular season and playoff homers in a season, with 65.

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A haunting loss for the M’s

Ultimately though this won’t matter to Raleigh, who is all about team accolades over any personal achievements. Postgame, he was emotional as he made a point of saying how proud he is of his teammates and how much he loves them.

However, the Mariners’ heart and soul also knows they missed a golden opportunity on Monday night, which will haunt them and everyone in Seattle for a long time to come. Raleigh said:

“Utimately, you know, I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure. And that’s what we expected, to get to the World Series and win the World Series. That’s what the bar is and the standard is, and that’s what we want to hold ourselves accountable to. But, yeah, it hurts.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rogers Photography

What stood out for you as the main reason the Mariners lost Game Seven? Are you optimistic they can put themselves in a similar position to challenge for a World Series berth again next season, or do you expect them to take a step back? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.