Browsing: Mariners

Oct 15, 2025, 09:00 PM ET

SEATTLE — The Toronto Blue Jays are expecting Max Scherzer to be his excitable, feisty self when he starts Game 4 of the AL Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night.

“I love it. This is what you play for,” Scherzer said. “You want to have the ball in this situation. You want to be pitching in the postseason.”

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The 41-year-old Scherzer hasn’t pitched in a game since his last regular-season start on Sept. 24 against Boston. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is making his 26th postseason start and 31st appearance.

Scherzer and fellow right-hander Chris Bassitt were added to Toronto’s ALCS roster after they missed the Division Series against the Yankees. Bassitt pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in a relief appearance during Monday night’s 10-3 loss to the Mariners.

“I expect Max to be Max,” Bassitt said, “in the aspect of just go out there and execute at a very, very high level.”

Scherzer is 0-3 over his last eight postseason starts since the 2019 World Series. He went 1/3 with a 9.00 ERA in his final six starts of the 2025 season.

Scherzer admitted his pitching was not up to his standards toward the end of the season, and that he took time to get his body right. Manager John Schneider said Sunday that neck pain limited Scherzer at the end of the season. The eight-time All-Star also didn’t pitch between March 29 and June 25 because of right thumb inflammation.

Scherzer, who finalized a $15.5 million, one-year contract with Toronto in February, went 5-5 with a 5.19 ERA in 17 starts this year — his 18th in the major leagues.

“I don’t want to sit here and go backwards and blame injuries for any way I pitched,” Scherzer said. “When I take the mound, I take the mound, and I have the attitude (that) I’m going to win no matter what.”

The Blue Jays dropped the first two games of the ALCS at home but responded with a Game 3 win in Seattle on Wednesday night.

“We’re a great team,” Scherzer said Wednesday. “I’ve seen it over and over throughout this year, the number of times we responded in so many different ways. We had so many comeback wins. We’ve played great ball.

“Yes, we lost two games. Yes, obviously these are must-win games. We all understand what’s at stake.”

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SEATTLE (AP) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer woke up Torontoâ€s offense as the Blue Jays hit five home runs to rebound from an early deficit, routing the Seattle Mariners 13-4 Wednesday night and closing to 2-1 in the AL Championship Series.

Julio Rodríguezâ€s two-run, first-inning homer off Shane Bieber put Seattle ahead and stirred thoughts of a possible sweep in the best-of-seven matchup by a team seeking its first World Series appearance/

Andrés Giménez then sparked the comeback with a tying, two-run homer in a five-run third against George Kirby.

Springer, Guerrero, Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger also went deep as the Blue Jays totaled 2,004 feet of homers among 18 hits.

Guerrero had four hits, falling a triple short of the cycle, after going 0 for 7 as the Blue Jays lost the first two games at home.

“No one expected us to win the division, no one expected it us to be here, and I think the guys take that to heart.†Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I said it when we left Toronto: I hope we find some slug in the air out here. Maybe we did.â€

In the 2-3-2 format, teams that lost the first two games at home and won Game 3 on the road have captured the series three of 11 times.

A crowd of 46,471 at T-Mobile Park for Seattleâ€s first home ALCS game since 2001 saw the teams combine to match the postseason record of eight combined home runs, set by the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis in Game 3 of the 2015 NL Division Series and matched by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston in Game 2 of the 2017 World Series.

Giménez hadnâ€t homered since Aug. 27 before his drive off a fastball from Kirby

“Really big swing to get us going,†Schneider said.

Kirby allowed eight runs, eight hits and two walks, taking the loss. All eight hits were during the first three pitches of the at-bat.

“The first couple innings I thought he was dynamite,†Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “This is a team thatâ€s going to hurt you if you make mistakes on the plate. It looked like there were a couple that they were able to get to.â€

Kirbyâ€s run-scoring wild pitch put Toronto ahead 3-2 and Daulton Varsho followed with a two-run double.

Springer homered in the fourth, tying Bernie Williams was fourth on the career list with his 22nd postseason homer. Guerrero hit his fourth of the postseason for a 7-2 lead on the first pitch of the fifth.

Kirk added a three-run homer in the sixth and is hitting .413 (19 for 46) with eight RBIs in 14 games at T-Mobile Park.

Bieber, who got the win, pitched shutout ball after the first and wound up allowing four hits in six innings – the longest outing by a Blue Jays starter in seven postseason games.

“Obviously didnâ€t the start the way he would have wanted to, but thatâ€s pretty much who he is,†Springer said. “He can battle back from anything.â€

After the Blue Jays opened a 12-2 lead, Randy Arozarena connected in the eighth against Yariel Rodríguez for his first home run since Sept. 9 and Cal Raleigh, who led the major leagues with 60 home runs during the regular season, followed three pitches later with his third of the postseason.

Seattle RHP Luis Castillo, who pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief against Detroit in Game 5 of the Division Series, starts Thursday against RHP Max Scherzer. The 41-year-old, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, is 0-3 over eight postseason starts since the 2019 World Series opener, and hasnâ€t started a game since Sept. 24.

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After dropping the first two games of the ALCS to the Seattle Mariners, the Toronto Blue Jays have regained some momentum with a dominant 13-4 win in Game 3 on Wednesday.

The Blue Jays collected 18 hits and blasted five home runs in the win, which was far too much for a Seattle offense that had eight hits and three homers.

The Mariners struck first with a two-run homer from Julio Rodríguez in the bottom of the first, but from there it was all Toronto. They scored five runs in the third, with Andrés Giménez hitting a solo home run, and George Springer added another homer in the fourth.

Toronto then went up 8-2 fifth and added four more runs in the sixth to make it a 12-2 run lead. The Mariners showed some signs of life in the eighth with back-to-back home runs, but Addison Barger added some insurance for the Jays in the top of the ninth with a solo shot.

It was an offensive display all around for Toronto, but star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led the way, going 4-for-4 with a home run and three runs scored.

Blue Jays fans were thrilled with the offensive showing in Game 3.

The Blue Jays still have plenty of work to do after the win. They still trail 2-1 in the series and will be on the road for the next two games.

But after the way their offense came to life on Wednesday, it’s hard to imagine the Jays won’t have plenty of confidence heading into Game 4 on Thursday.

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SEATTLE — The Mariners are heading home on the cusp of history, while the Blue Jays know they must take care of business on the road in order to force this American League Championship Series back to Canada.

With consecutive road wins to open the ALCS, Seattle has grabbed control of this October showdown as it returns to one of baseballâ€s most electric atmospheres at T-Mobile Park, where crowds roared through every pitch of the ALDS against the Tigers.

“I expect a lot of noise from the fans,†said Mariners infielder Jorge Polanco. “I know theyâ€re going to show up. I know theyâ€re going to bring a lot of energy for us. I know theyâ€re going to support us. Weâ€re just going to go there and keep competing, keep competing.â€

Just two wins away from the first World Series appearance in franchise history, the Mariners expect to be welcomed back by a city now swelling with belief. Do they have what it takes to finish the job?

“We know we have work to do,†said Seattle manager Dan Wilson. “These series take on a life of [their] own. We’ve got plenty of work to do and weâ€ve got to stay focused on where we’re headed. We know our fans will help us get there.â€

Their home-field advantage erased, the Blue Jays can take solace in the fact that they wonâ€t be making the trip alone. There promises to be support from the north in the form of the “Canadian Invasion,†fan groups who travel in the thousands whenever the Blue Jays visit.

But they canâ€t count on that contingent alone to flip the script — they need the power hitting and pitching depth that defined their season to reappear before itâ€s too late.

“The difference in these first two is that slug hasnâ€t been there for us; slug has been there for them,†said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “You never know when itâ€s going to turn. … Hopefully, the luck turns and hopefully the slug turns up.â€

When is the game and how can I watch it?

First pitch is scheduled for 8:08 p.m. ET (5:08 p.m. PT) on Wednesday at T-Mobile Park and can be seen in the United States on FS1.

Blue Jays fans in Canada can tune in via Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ for the broadcast with Buck Martinez, Dan Shulman and Hazel Mae, or listen to the radio call with Ben Shulman and Chris Leroux on Sportsnet 590 The FAN.

All series are available in the US on MLB.TV with authentication to a participating Pay TV provider. Games also are available live internationally, although not in Canada. Sportsnet is MLB’s exclusive English language broadcaster in Canada for every Postseason game, while TVA Sports will be covering the entire AL Postseason and the World Series in French and Broadcaster RDS will cover the entire NL Postseason in French.

Who are the starting pitchers?

Blue Jays: Shane Bieber (4-2, 3.57 ERA) didnâ€t look sharp in the ALDS against the Yankees, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits over 2 2/3 innings in the Blue Jays†lone loss of that series. These are the starts the Blue Jays brought the former Cy Young Award winner to Toronto to make, though, and heâ€s got another shot in Game 3. Just like his start against the Yankees, this is the Blue Jays†first road game of the series in whatâ€s certain to be a loud, intimidating environment.

Down the stretch, after Bieber returned from the home stretch of his Tommy John rehab, he looked excellent. Heâ€s even flashed velocities slightly above his averages before the surgery and his pinpoint control came back quickly, but the Mariners are already showing their combination of patience and power. In what could be Bieberâ€s final start before free agency unless the Blue Jays extend this series, the stakes couldnâ€t be higher for him.

Mariners: RHP George Kirby (0-0, 2.70 ERA in these playoffs) will get the call on regular rest after twirling five-plus brilliant innings in his most recent outing in ALDS Game 5 on Friday — the 15-inning marathon win vs. the Tigers. Kirby was relieved after just 66 pitches in a matchup-dictated decision once lefty slugger Kerry Carpenter came up for the third time, but he went toe-to-toe with Tarik Skubal until that point. Kirby also started ALDS Game 1, with his lone blemish being a two-run homer to Carpenter that proved decisive in a 3-2 loss.

Kirby is no stranger to the Blue Jays, either, though the last time he faced them in October was under drastically different circumstances — when he closed out the 2022 AL Wild Card Series with his first and only career save. He was a rookie back then, before he blossomed into a 2023 All-Star, but was already on his way to being one of the sportâ€s elite strike-throwers.

Kirby was sidelined for two months with shoulder inflammation before making his 2025 debut on May 22. Heâ€s experienced some expected hiccups along the way, but appears to be peaking at the right time.

What are the starting lineups?

Blue Jays: Going up against another right-hander, the Blue Jays should roll out a similar lineup to what weâ€ve seen through the postseason. Anthony Santander was a late scratch in Game 2 with lower back tightness, but letâ€s work with the likelihood he will be back in the lineup for Game 3:

Mariners: Wilson regularly deployed a more consistent daily lineup throughout the regular season, and that was particularly true once the entire roster came together after the Trade Deadline. And that has remained in the playoffs, with the only factors changing based on the opposing pitcherâ€s handedness. For Game 3, he rolled out a lineup identical to what he used in the ALDS against Detroitâ€s right-handed starters.

How will the bullpens line up after the starter?

Blue Jays: Louis Varland has appeared in all six postseason games, so if anyone in this bullpen is feeling the weight of the postseason, itâ€s him. The Blue Jays should still have all of their back-end arms available, though. Starter Chris Bassitt threw 1 2/3 innings in Game 2 to help lessen the burden on those arms, such as Jeff Hoffman, Seranthony Domínguez and Yariel Rodriguez. After finishing the season strong, though, and nailing a Game 4 bullpen game against the Yankees, the Blue Jays†bullpen is faltering at the wrong time against the Mariners.

Mariners: Thanks to a runaway win in ALCS Game 2, Wilson didnâ€t have to use his three highest-leverage arms (Andrés Muñoz, Matt Brash and Gabe Speier), and that was even after Logan Gilbert lasted only three innings. It sets them up nicely, especially with Tuesdayâ€s off-day to build in more rest. That said, their No. 4 on the leverage depth chart, Eduard Bazardo, threw 30 high-stress pitches over two innings on Monday, and overall, has thrown eight in six appearances. Getting some length from Kirby then bridging to the other three guys would be the ideal scenario.

Blue Jays: Bo Bichette was left off the Blue Jays†ALCS roster as he continues to rehab from his left knee sprain and his status will remain a daily story in Toronto as he pushes to return in time for a potential World Series. Given that this is also the final year of Bichetteâ€s deal in Toronto, the only organization heâ€s known, the stakes are sky high.

Nathan Lukes left Game 1 after fouling a ball off his right knee, but was right back in the lineup for Game 2 after tests came back negative. Anthony Santander is the latest Blue Jays hitter to be banged up, though, and was a late scratch Monday, just hours before Game 2 with lower back tightness. We should know more about his Game 3 status when John Schneider meets with the media Tuesday in Seattle.

Ty France is the only other relevant injury on the Blue Jays. France ended the season on the IL with an oblique injury, but heâ€s recovered by now and it was a baseball decision to leave him off the ALCS roster.

Mariners: Bryan Woo (pectoral inflammation) came out of a live batting practice on Monday reporting “all positives,†which tentatively has him in line for ALCS Game 5 on Friday, sources with knowledge of the situation told MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer. Yet those plans are written in pencil and will hinge on how he bounces back in the coming days and, even in a best-case scenario, would feature an abbreviated workload. If this were the regular season, Woo would be gearing up for a Minor League rehab assignment to build volume, but thatâ€s obviously not an option. Yet, the Mariners still want to ensure that the 2025 All-Star is in position to give them the best chance to win when he does indeed return, having not pitched since exiting a Sept. 19 start in Houston with the issue.

Who is hot and who is not?

Blue Jays: George Springer homered in Game 1 and ripped a double to the wall in Game 2, but beyond the veteran and Lukes — who went 3-for-4 Monday — the Blue Jays†lineup is cold. Theyâ€re still waiting on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to recapture the magic of his ALDS, when he hit three home runs and drove in nine against the Yankees. The Blue Jays could really use some contributions from Addison Barger, whose bat has been quiet, or Alejandro Kirk, who has put together some better at-bats lately.

Mariners: Jorge Polancoâ€s teammates joked that theyâ€ve begun calling him “George Bonds†as a moniker to his first name in English with a nod to the all-time home run king, Barry Bonds. But thatâ€s the kind of run that the slugging second baseman has been on in October, having been responsible for Seattleâ€s go-ahead RBI in each of their past three games … Cal Raleigh was hitless in two at-bats on Monday but still drew two walks and scored two runs, underscoring the threat he brings at the plate … As for whoâ€s not, Victor Robles is just 3-for-22 (.136) this postseason, while leadoff man Randy Arozarena is 5-for-31 (.161).

Anything else fans might want to know?

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Oct 14, 2025, 07:09 PM ET

SEATTLE — Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer will start Game 4 of the American League Championship Series for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Seattle Mariners.

Scherzer was activated after being left off the roster for the division series against the New York Yankees and is slated to make his 26th postseason start and 31st appearance. The 41-year-old right-hander is 0-3 over his past eight postseason starts since the 2019 World Series opener, and went 1-3 with a 9.00 ERA in his final six starts of the 2025 season.

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Manager John Schneider said Sunday that neck pain limited Scherzer at the end of the season and that he is in a better spot physically than a month ago. Opting to use the eight-time All-Star as a starter stemmed from wanting to keep Scherzer’s routine consistent.

“I’ve talked about him preparing all year,” Schneider said Tuesday, a day before the matchup resumes with Toronto trying to overcome a 2-0 series deficit. “So I think keeping things normal for him. Going back to you want to see normalcy. So you trust that he’s going to be prepared and go out and give everything he has and hopefully rise to the occasion of a big moment. He’s a Hall of Famer for a reason. So you feel good about handing him the ball and watching him go to work.”

An eight-time All-Star, Scherzer was 5-5 with a 5.19 ERA in 17 starts after agreeing to a $15.5 million, one-year contract. He didn’t pitch between March 29 and June 25 because of right thumb inflammation.

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TORONTO — Two games into the AL Championship Series against Seattle, the Toronto Blue Jays look like a different team from the one that pounded the New York Yankees.

“Always going to have optimism about this team,†manager John Schneider said after a 10-3 loss to the Mariners dropped Toronto into a 2-0 series deficit. “Weâ€ve got to figure out a way to limit damage, one, and then two, generate more offense

Of the 27 teams winning the first two games on the road of a best-of-seven series during the 2-3-2 format, 24 have gone on to win.

Toronto, which led the majors with 49 comeback wins in the regular season, is trying to reach the World Series for the first time since winning its second straight title in 1993.

Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was 0 for 3 with a walk and is 0 for 7 in the series. Guerrero went 9 for 17 with three homers and nine RBIs in four games against the Yankees.

Toronto has four runs and eight hits — just two for extra bases — in the two games against Seattle. Just one hit has come after the second inning.

Toronto went 40-41 on the road in the regular season but swept a three-game series at Seattle in May.

“We have a good day tomorrow to reset as a team and get ready for Game 3 and whatever happens there,†said rookie Trey Yesavage, the Game 2 loser. “I wouldnâ€t count this group out. This group is special.â€

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  Jorge CastilloOct 13, 2025, 08:48 PM ET

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  ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.

TORONTO — J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured member of the Seattle Mariners, has experienced some disappointment in his seven seasons in the Pacific Northwest. A last-place finish. Falling just short of reaching the postseason three times. Playoff exhilaration getting abruptly extinguished the year they made it.

Sometime early this season, the shortstop believed this team was different.

“We know we’re a good team,” he said shortly after the Mariners completed perhaps the most important road trip in franchise history with a 10-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series. “And now everyone knows that we can do this thing, and that’s what’s lighting the fire underneath everyone.”

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The Mariners are two wins from doing the thing — winning their first AL pennant and advancing to the World Series for the first time in franchise history — with Game 3 scheduled for Wednesday at T-Mobile Park. It is the first time they’ve led an ALCS by multiple games. It is the 28th time in postseason history that the road team has won the first two games of a best-of-seven series. Only three of those clubs lost the series.

“We think about it,” said second baseman Jorge Polanco, who swatted a go-ahead, three-run home run in the fifth inning to give Seattle a lead they didn’t relinquish. “We hear it a lot. We know. But the mentality is just keep it simple. Just try to refocus on playing game by game.”

Less than 24 hours after the Mariners — wearied after an emotional 15-inning win in Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Friday — won Game 1 thanks to a late-inning comeback fueled by adrenaline, they used a less dramatic blueprint in Game 2.

The Mariners pounded three home runs and got six scoreless innings from three relievers to complete Monday’s demolition inside an open-roofed Rogers Centre on Canadian Thanksgiving before heading back to Seattle to potentially close out the series.

The Mariners did not waste time inflicting heavy damage against a pitcher they never had faced. Eight days ago, Trey Yesavage held the New York Yankees hitless over 5â…“ innings in his fourth career start in Game 2 of the ALDS. His abnormally high release point and arm angle, coupled with a fastball-splitter combination, overwhelmed the Yankees.

The Mariners entered the encounter with a simple game plan to avoid falling victim to the splitter, which limited the Yankees to 0-for-11 with eight strikeouts: If it’s low, let it go. Wait for a mistake up in the zone and do not miss.

Julio Rodriguez did not miss. Three batters into the game, after Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Cal Raleigh walked, Yesavage threw a mistake splitter to Rodriguez up and over the plate on a 1-2 count that Rodríguez cracked down the left-field line for a three-run shot.

Polanco Comes Up Clutch Again

Jorge Polanco is the first player in MLB history to have a go-ahead hit in the fifth inning or later of 3 consecutive playoff games.

• ALDS Game 5 – Series-winning RBI single in 15th inning

• ALCS Game 1 – Game-winning RBI single in 6th inning

• ALCS Game 2 – Game-winning 3-run HR in 5th inning

It was the first home run Yesavage has allowed in his brief major league career — he had previously surrendered just two extra-base hits in four starts — and the first extra-base hit he has surrendered with his splitter in the majors.

“I feel like, at the end of the day, you got to see the ball and get your pitch,” Rodríguez said. “We have seen what he’s been doing, and obviously we respect that, but we went out there to compete.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider called for a reliever to warm up as Yesavage’s pitch count approached 30 after Rodriguez’s crowd-silencing blast. But the rookie right-hander stranded a runner at second base with consecutive strikeouts. He then settled into the game as Toronto responded with three runs in the first two innings to tie the score. Yesavage held the Mariners without another run until departing with one out and two runners on base in the fifth inning.

Two batters after Yesavage’s exit, Polanco continued his torrid October by launching a 98 mph fastball from right-hander Louis Varland just over the right-center-field wall to give the Mariners the lead with their second three-run homer. The home run was the switch-hitting Polanco’s third of the postseason and first batting left-handed. His first two were against Detroit Tigers ace lefty Tarik Skubal in the ALDS. Polanco, a 12-year veteran, has eight RBIs in the playoffs, already tied for the third most in the Mariners’ concise postseason history.

Josh Naylor delivered the final blow, a two-run home run to right field off right-hander Braydon Fisher for Naylor’s third hit of the day to give Seattle a 9-3 lead in the seventh inning. A native of Mississauga, Ontario, the first baseman became the first Canadian-born player to hit a home run in the postseason as a visiting player in Canada.

“I went 0-for-4 yesterday, and we won,” Naylor said. “So, if I did it again today, maybe [it] was good luck to go 0-for-4, and we would win again. But I was very thankful to get some hits, help the team out. Super cool to do it in front of my family, too.”

Naylor celebrated the homer by pointing to the crowd behind the Mariners’ dugout as he began his trot. He and third baseman Eugenio Suarez were the two sluggers the Mariners acquired at the trade deadline to bolster an offense that failed to adequately complement an elite pitching staff in previous years. The moves solidified Crawford’s belief early in the season — that this team could do what no team has done since the franchise’s inception in 1977.

“We’re two wins away,” Crawford said. “If that doesn’t fire anyone up, I don’t know what can.”

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TORONTO — Every so often in the Seattle Mariners clubhouse, the “Top Gun Anthem,” full of soaring guitar notes and pick-me-up vibes, will randomly blast from inside a locker. Everyone knows the culprit. Jorge Polanco, the Mariners’ veteran second baseman, is not a fan of silencing his phone.

“But he loves Maverick and Iceman,” Mariners star Cal Raleigh said.

Nobody really minds. When a player is doing what Polanco has done this postseason — rescuing the Mariners from the danger zone seemingly daily, with his latest trick a go-ahead three-run home run that paved the way for Monday’s 10-3 victory — his ringtone could be Limp Bizkit and nobody would utter a peep.

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Instead, it’s the perfect soundtrack for this Mariners run, which currently sees them up two games to none against the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. The “Top Gun Anthem” is an epic ballad filled with the sorts of ups and downs that personify an organization that has spent 49 years alternating among the desolation of mediocrity and the heartbreak of underachievement. The only team in Major League Baseball to never to play in a World Series, Seattle is two wins away from capturing its first American League pennant and is heading home to T-Mobile Park for Game 3.

The Mariners’ dominant position is in large part thanks to a 32-year-old infielder whose feats have earned him the right to be called Iceman himself — and yet that’s not the nickname Polanco wears these days.

“He’s George Bonds,” M’s catcher Mitch Garver said.

Yes, Polanco’s alter ego is the anglicized version of his first name and the surname of Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader. He earned it earlier this season, Garver said, when “everything he hit was 110 [mph] in a gap or over the fence. It was unbelievable.”

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Particularly when considering that last winter, Polanco didn’t know whether he would be healthy enough to keep hitting major league pitching. Polanco, who had struggled for years with left knee issues, underwent surgery in October 2024 to repair his patellar tendon. A free agent, Polanco drew limited interest on the market and wound up re-signing with the Mariners for one year and $7.75 million.

“It’s been a journey, man,” Polanco said. “That’s the way I can put it. I wouldn’t say it’s been bad. I wouldn’t say it’s been easy. I think God just prepared me for this year. I’ve been hurt a little bit, so yeah; but now we here, and I’m glad to be back.

“You just have to have faith. You overcome. Come back stronger.”

Polanco’s strength has been on display all October. It first appeared in the second game of Seattle’s division series against the Detroit Tigers when he hit two home runs off ace Tarik Skubal, who is about to win his second consecutive Cy Young Award. It continued three games later in a winner-takes-all Game 5 when he lashed a single into right field in the 15th inning that advanced the Mariners to their first ALCS since 2001. It didn’t stop there, with Polanco’s go-ahead single in the sixth inning of Game 1 against the Blue Jays on Sunday.

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Then came Monday’s fifth-inning blast off Toronto reliever Louis Varland, who fed a 98 mph fastball over the plate and watched it leave the bat at 105.2 mph, flying 400 feet to turn a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 Seattle lead.

“He’s always been a great hitter,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “His swing right now is very short. That ball tonight, I wasn’t sure it was going to go out of the ballpark, but I think he’s just getting that kind of spin on it right now where it stays up.”

That is no accident. Polanco arrived in the major leagues with the Minnesota Twins in 2014 at age 20, a bat-to-ball savant whose ability to hit from both sides of the plate carved him out a regular role with the team.

“He wasn’t George Bonds before,” Garver said. “He was Harry Potter. Because he was a wizard. He’d just make hits appear.”

Polanco found power five years into his career, and he maxed out with 33 home runs for the Twins in 2021. But the degradation of his knee sapped the juice in his bat and left him flailing too often at pitches he’d have previously spit on. Last year, in his first season with the Mariners, his numbers cratered, but the organization appreciated Polanco’s even-keeled demeanor and believed fixing his knee would fix his swing too.

The Mariners were right. George Bonds was born during a ridiculous first month of the 2025 season when he whacked nine homers in 80 plate appearances. Polanco had embraced the M’s ethos of pulling the ball in the air. Raleigh led MLB with a 1.594 OPS on balls pulled. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez was second at 1.497. Polanco hit 23 of his 26 home runs this season to the pull side, and both of his homers off Skubal (hit from the right side) and the one against Varland (left) were met in front of the plate and yanked over the fence.

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“Throughout the years, I hated going to Minnesota just solely because of him,” said shortstop J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured Mariner. “The guy single-handedly beat us so many times. We all know the type of player he is when he is healthy, and it’s clearly showing right now.”

Never in the game’s 150-year history had a player logged three consecutive game-winning hits in the fifth inning or later during the postseason. It’s the sort of performance teams need to win pennants — and championships. As brilliant as Raleigh has been in a could-be-MVP campaign and as conflagrant as Julio Rodriguez was in the second half and as dominant as Seattle’s pitching has been en route to this point, winning playoff baseball takes more.

Like, say, a guy who over the winter was an afterthought now hitting cleanup and never wavering, even in the highest-leverage situations.

“What’s most impressive is bouncing back after a rough year last year,” said Seattle pitcher Bryan Woo, who will start Game 3 on Wednesday against Toronto’s Shane Bieber. “Especially for a guy on his second team, back half of his career. To do what he’s doing — get healthy, come back, help the team like he has — is even more impressive than just playing good baseball.”

Playing good baseball helps too. Polanco has helped get Seattle in a place that barely a month ago looked impossible to conceive. From mid-August to early September, the Mariners lost 13 of 18, trailed the Houston Astros by 3½ games in the AL West and held a half-game lead on the Texas Rangers for the final wild-card spot. From there, the M’s went 17-4, won the West, earned a first-round bye and charted a course for history.

They’re not there. And yet even Polanco admitted that Seattle players can’t ignore the team’s history and recognize what it would mean to get to the World Series.

“Yeah, we think about it,” he said. “We’ve heard it a lot. We know.”

The knowledge hasn’t deterred them. Raleigh is raking. Rodriguez is slugging. Josh Naylor, who grew up in nearby Mississauga, Ontario, blasted a two-run home run in Game 2 of the ALCS. And George Bonds has shown up in style, cold as Iceman, cool as Maverick, perfectly happy to eschew silent mode in favor of loud contact.

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TORONTO – The Mariners had never seen Trey Yesavage pitch in person before, but they had seen and heard the stories.

How the 22-year-old Blue Jays righty transcended four full-season levels of the Minor Leagues to burst into the big leagues in September. How he captivated a raucous Rogers Centre crowd with 5 1/3 no-hit innings against the Yankees in the American League Division Series. The Mariners did not have any prior experience against Yesavage, but they knew what was coming, having seen the video of the plummeting splitter that has made hitters look so silly at every level this year.

It was their job to put a pause on Yesavageâ€s meteoric rise, at least for the moment.

The Mariners tagged Yesavage for five runs – one of which came from an intentional walk in the fifth inning – across four-plus innings in their 10-3 win over the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the AL Championship Series on Monday. And with it, the series swings to Seattle with the Mariners two wins away from their first World Series appearance.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to see the ball and get your pitch,†said Julio Rodríguez, who hit a three-run homer in the first. “And I just feel like, obviously, we have seen what he’s been doing, and obviously we respect that, but we went out there to compete.â€

Yesavage struck out four but walked three and hit a batter. His command was shakier than the Blue Jays had seen in his previous four starts. But the Mariners seemed to figure out the blueprint on how to approach the rookie.

“Just trying to get on the fastball,†catcher Cal Raleigh said. “A lot of us, weâ€ve never seen him before. So it was kind of seeing what heâ€s got and understanding it. Heâ€s a really good pitcher.â€

Yesavage has one of the highest release points in baseball, throwing straight over the top of his 6-foot-4 frame. That makes for a tough look on hitters, with pitches seemingly falling from the sky. Add that look to a splitter that tumbles down and out of the zone, and hitters are often swinging silly as they try to guess whatâ€s coming at them. Yesavage got 11 whiffs on 14 swings against his splitter in his MLB debut against the Rays a month ago. Last week in the ALDS, the Yankees whiffed 11 times on 16 swings (69 percent) against the pitch.

Of Yesavageâ€s 70 pitches, the Mariners saw 44 percent fastballs, but then also saw more sliders (23) than splitters (16). When they did see it, they did not swing often – just six times, whiffing twice – and one of those swings was Rodríguezâ€s homer on a splitter that did not move out of the zone at all. He sent it 370 feet out to left field for his second home run this postseason.

“I had belief in the slider as much as the splitter today,†Yesavage said. “I would say the slider was a little bit better than it has been in the past, but I had full trust in that, so I was out there throwing it.â€

Yesavage – who has thrown a career-high 121 1/3 innings this year between the Minors, Majors and postseason – saw his velocity drop as he pitched deeper into the game. After handling the bottom of the Mariners†order in the fourth, Blue Jays manager John Schneider sent Yesavage out for the fifth.

Yesavage might not have had his sharpest stuff, the velocity was dropping and he was about to face Seattleâ€s lineup for the third time. But the Blue Jays wanted to see if they could get a few more outs from him.

“You consider it, but at the same time, itâ€s tough to continue to churn through bullpen arms,†Schneider said. “Youâ€re taking into account the uniqueness of his arsenal, and youâ€re taking it batter to batter there. It didnâ€t start out great with the error. It was a tough decision, for sure.â€

On the first pitch of the frame, Randy Arozarena singled and ended up on second because of Andrés Giménezâ€s errant throw that went into the Mariners†dugout and hit Eugenio Suárez.

The Blue Jays intentionally walked Raleigh, and Schneider made his way to the mound to end Yesavageâ€s day. Reliever Louis Varland struck out Rodríguez but allowed the tiebreaking three-run homer to Jorge Polanco.

“It’s tough, man, when you get no outs and you’re trying to just stop the bleeding,†Schneider said.

What comes next for Yesavage depends on how the Blue Jays can respond in Seattle. Perhaps they use him if they find themselves in an all-hands-on-deck situation by Game 4 or 5. The Mariners are cognizant of the fact they might see the rookie again, and if they do, theyâ€ll be able to pull from Monday nightâ€s performance to prepare.

“With myself, Iâ€ll just go to the field tomorrow and attack the recovery I need to do as if I went seven shutout today,†Yesavage said. “It doesnâ€t change my preparation. Iâ€ll show up to the field the same way.â€

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The Seattle Mariners are halfway to an American League Championship Series victory, and they haven’t even played a home game yet.

Seattle seized a 2-0 series lead over the Toronto Blue Jays with a 10-3 victory in Monday’s Game 2 at Rogers Centre. It is now just two wins away from its first World Series appearance in franchise history.

Power was the name of the game for the visitors in their latest triumph, as Julio Rodríguez launched a three-run homer in the first inning, Jorge Polanco sent one over the wall for another three-run long ball in the fifth and Josh Naylor added insurance with a two-run homer in the seventh.

Polanco’s blast broke a tie and put the Mariners ahead for good and helped provide plenty of run support for a strong bullpen that went the final six innings.

The home runs and overall performance also caught the attention of social media:

Neither team wasted any time offensively with immediate fireworks. While Rodríguez’s home run was the first blow, Toronto answered right back with two runs of its own against Mariners starter Logan Gilbert in the first inning.Â

George Springer doubled and scored on an error after Nathan Lukes’ single, and Lukes then scored on Alejandro Kirk’s single. Lukes was far from done, as he tied it up in the second with an RBI single.

Toronto was dialed in against Gilbert across the starter’s brief three innings of work, but the same could not be said against the bullpen. Eduard Bazardo got the ball first out of the Seattle bullpen and was brilliant with two shutout innings.

The Blue Jays were unable to counter with their own bullpen, as Louis Varland came in for starter Trey Yesavage with runners on first and second and nobody out in the fifth only to give up Polanco’s monster homer two batters later. Yesavage was charged with five earned runs in the four innings, but the Mariners continued to add to the lead with an RBI single from J.P Crawford in the sixth.

By the time Naylor hit his homer, the result was hardly in doubt.

Carlos Vargas and Emerson Hancock shut the door the rest of the way for Seattle’s bullpen against a strong Toronto offense that just overwhelmed the New York Yankees in the last series.Â

The formula of timely long balls on offense and shutdown pitching in the late innings from the bullpen is a dominant one in the playoffs, and the Mariners will look to unleash it again when the series shifts to Seattle for Wednesday’s Game 3.

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