TORONTO – The Blue Jays insisted they were right where they wanted to be, and they proved it. The roof may have been closed, but their season remains wide open.
Inside a packed and deafening Rogers Centre, Toronto staved off elimination with their 6-2 victory over the Mariners on Sunday night, forcing a decisive Game 7 in the American League Championship Series.
“This was the most electric, energized crowd I’ve ever played in front of before,” Yesavage said. “The team rallied behind the fans. They were a huge motivation for us.”
As Jays manager John Schneider predicted, his club did not buckle after their crushing Game 5 loss in Seattle pushed them to the brink of elimination, which had provided the Mariners with an opportunity to claim a pennant on foreign soil.
“We’ll be ready to go in Game 7,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said. “Baseball is a game of adjustments. They will be able to do that tomorrow night.”
It has been a fantastic series, marked by clutch and gritty performances on both sides — and now it all will come down to Monday. The Blue Jays haven’t been to a World Series since 1993; the Mariners never have.
Toronto hasn’t participated in a Game 7 since the 1985 ALCS against the Royals, while this will be Seattle’s first. One of the clubs will advance to face the Dodgers in the Fall Classic, the other will go home empty-handed.
“You’ve got to enjoy it, man,” Schneider said. “This is what we sign up for. This is why we sacrifice everything.”
In postseason history, teams playing any winner-take-all game in their home ballpark are only 68-67, including 30-29 in best-of-seven series.
“I love pitching under pressure,” said Seattle’s George Kirby, who will start Game 7 opposite Toronto’s Shane Bieber in a rematch of Game 3. Kirby surrendered three home runs and eight earned runs over four innings in that game, a runaway 13-4 Jays victory, while Bieber allowed just two runs over six innings with eight strikeouts.
Game 6 was a night for firsts. Yesavage had not induced a double-play grounder through the first 14 innings of his big league career (and just two in his 98 Minor League innings this year). The rookie right-hander must have been saving that trick for when he really needed it, rolling three consecutive inning-enders in huge spots.
Cal Raleigh hit into a bases-loaded twin killing that ended the third inning, J.P. Crawford bounced into one with the bags full in the fourth, and Julio Rodríguez grounded into a double play that allowed Yesavage to escape the fifth unscathed.
“I was getting my stuff in the box early, getting ahead of batters and letting my defense work,” Yesavage said. “Getting three double plays in back-to-back-to-back innings to get out of two bases-loaded jams, that is huge. I knew my defense had my back.”
Throughout this ALCS, the Blue Jays have showcased a boom-or-bust offense — fortunately for the enthusiastic crowd on hand, it was more of the former. Facing Logan Gilbert for the second time in this series, Toronto took advantage of Seattle’s uncharacteristically shaky defense, as the M’s committed a season-high three errors.
The first came in the second inning, when third baseman Eugenio Suárez booted an Ernie Clement grounder, following a Daulton Varsho leadoff double.
Barger and Isiah Kiner-Falefa cashed runs with singles; Guerrero scorched a 116 mph grounder that appeared destined for more damage, but Suárez smothered it with a terrific diving stop. It was the hardest-hit ball of this ALCS so far.
“He’s obviously locked in,” Clement said of Guerrero. “He’s just staying within himself and not trying to do too much – and he is doing a lot, so it’s fun to watch.”
Toronto added a two-out rally in the third inning. Clement jumped on the first pitch he saw for a triple to deep left, pelting the chain-link fence overlooking the bullpen, and Barger parked a slider into the seats beyond right-center field to open up the lead.
“That’s a moment you dream about as a kid,” Barger said.
Guerrero hoisted his bat high after going deep in the fifth inning, launching Gilbert’s final pitch of the game – a curveball – into the left-field bullpen. Gilbert was knocked for five runs (four earned) and seven hits in four-plus innings, including two homers.
It was Guerrero’s sixth homer of this postseason, tying Joe Carter and José Bautista for the most by a Blue Jay in a single postseason.
“It feels great, but it feels even better because we won the game,” Guerrero said.
Josh Naylor broke up Yesavage’s shutout bid with a sixth-inning homer, his third of this postseason. Two of the three have been hit in Toronto by Naylor, a native of Mississauga, Ont. Suárez added a run-scoring single in the sixth to greet Louis Varland, the first reliever out of the Jays’ bullpen.
Hit by a pitch his next time up in the seventh, Guerrero created chaos as he came around to score Toronto’s sixth run, advancing on a wild pitch and a Raleigh throwing error. Television replays showed Guerrero stomping on home plate and looking into the Seattle dugout, clapping his hands emphatically.
Jeff Hoffman recorded the final six outs, striking out four — and, to paraphrase the late, great Jack Buck, we’ll see you tomorrow night for a Game 7 that has been decades in the making. Everyone on both sides promises to be ready.
“If you’re not, I don’t know if you have a pulse,” Hoffman said. “This is why we do it, to have an opportunity like this.”
