The last time a team fell down 2-0 at home in a seven-game series and came back to win was 2 1/2 years before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was born. That was in the 1996 World Series, when the Yankees recovered to beat the Braves. The Mariners’ manager, Dan Wilson, made his lone All-Star appearance that season. It has been a long time, is what we’re saying here.
That’s what the Blue Jays are facing as they head into Game 3 of the ALCS, playing in front of a Seattle crowd that is going to be losing its ever-loving mind. It’s a long road back for the Jays, a road that starts Wednesday night. On the other hand, the Mariners could get themselves into a position where the franchise has never been: just one win away from reaching the World Series.
Throughout this postseason, I’ll be previewing the next day’s action, game by game. Here are three storylines to look for from ALCS Game 3 on Wednesday night.
ALCS Game 3: Blue Jays at Mariners (SEA leads, 2-0)
8:08 p.m. ET, FS1
SP: Shane Bieber (TOR) vs. George Kirby (SEA)
1. Can the Blue Jays start stringing some innings together?
The Blue Jays, at the very least, are getting off to good starts in this series. George Springer homered in the first inning of Game 1, and they scored two runs in the first inning and one in the second of Game 2. The problem, of course, is what has happened afterward: Nothing. The Blue Jays have been scoreless from the third inning on in both games of this series, which is not the only reason they’re down 2-0, but it is the primary one. Toronto’s offense, which bashed Yankees pitching to the tune of a .338/.373/.601 line in the ALDS, is at a meager .131/.232/.197 in this series.
The most amazing aspect of this is that the Mariners’ bullpen, after that 15-inning marathon in ALDS Game 5, was supposed to be so exhausted that they could barely stand, let alone toss nine scoreless innings like they have. The Blue Jays, through their slumber, did something you would think impossible: They silenced a Toronto crowd that so desperately wanted to scream all night. If the Blue Jays want to see that crowd again before 2026, they need to stop napping after the second inning.
2. Will we keep seeing “George Bonds?”
As far as nicknames go, “George Bonds” might not be the most electric. (It definitely sounds like the name of a tax lawyer in suburban Omaha.) But Mariners switch-hitter Jorge Polanco has been such a force in October, it’s perhaps not a surprise that his teammates, after watching him hit like Barry Bonds, are calling him that.
Polanco now has the game-winning RBI in three consecutive postseason games, becoming the third player in postseason history to do that and the first since Eric Hosmer a decade ago. All three of those RBIs have come in the fifth inning or later. And — oh yeah — he also hit two homers off Tarik Skubal last week, in the ALDS. (We should probably never forget when someone hits two homers off Tarik Skubal in a postseason game.)
The Mariners still have a couple of hitters they’d like to get going, specifically leadoff hitter Randy Arozarena, who has a .278 OBP this postseason, and Eugenio Suárez, who’s hitting .138. But having Polanco alongside Cal Raleigh (who, at .357, is apparently Tony Gwynn all of a sudden) and Julio Rodríguez (who has had a couple of clutch moments himself) has the Mariners as close to an offensive postseason juggernaut as anything we’ve seen. And now they’re facing Bieber, who isn’t quite back to peak velocity Shane Bieber and didn’t make it out of the third in his last start. And he’s not going to be able to pitch around this Bonds.
3. Can the Seattle crowd make its presence felt?
As you may have heard, the Mariners have never been to a World Series, and they won two games in the ALCS only three times: in 1995, in 2000 and … right here, right now in 2025. Which is to say that their next win will be their new zenith as a franchise. The crowd at T-Mobile Park has been one of the biggest stories of this whole postseason, a nightly cavalcade of noise, joy and tears, one we saw most recently celebrating a 15-inning, series-clinching victory.
Since that game, the Mariners have gone up 2-0, on the road, and now just need to win two of their next five to at last remove that “only team never to reach a World Series” designation that has plagued them for nearly 20 years now. That’s to say: This Seattle crowd is going to welcome them home with noise like they have never heard before.
It has felt like something special is happening with this team for a while now. Over the next two or three days, we may well find out for sure.
