TORONTO — With eight strikeouts in their first World Series, the Seattle Mariners let it slide.
Their 49th season may have been their most heartbreaking yet.
Eduard Bazardo gave up George Springer's three-run homer in the seventh inning, and The Mariners lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 4–3. on Monday night in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
“I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure,” Seattle star Cal Raleigh said. “We expected to get to the World Series and win the World Series. That's the bar and the standard, and that's what we want to be held accountable for.”
Having won their first AL West title since 2001, the Mariners had high hopes heading into October. But those World Series aspirations remained unfulfilled.
“Obviously it hurts,” center fielder Julio Rodriguez said. “That's part of the game too.”
Seattle arrived in Toronto with a 3–2 series lead and needed just one win to bring the World Series to the Pacific Northwest for the first time. The only major league team to never play in the Series never achieved this victory.
The Mariners never led during a 6–2 loss in Game 6, but they took the lead in the first inning of Game 7 when Rodriguez doubled the lead and scored on Josh Naylor's single.
Rodriguez's fourth homer of the postseason gave Seattle a 2-1 lead in the third, and Raleigh added his 65th home run of the year in the fifth, his fifth of the postseason, to extend the lead to 3-1.
Brian Wu, who returned Friday from a pectoral strain that sidelined him for nearly a month, replaced starter George Kirby in the fifth.
Wu walked Addison Barger on five pitches starting the seventh, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa grounded a single to center and No. 9 batter Andres Jimenez sacrificed.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson brought in Bazardo, who started Springer with an inside sinker and then left another sinker over the plate at knee height.
Springer hit his 23rd career homer in the postseason.
Wilson said he doesn't regret choosing Bazardo over closer Andres Munoz.
“You make decisions and sometimes you have to live and die by them,” Wilson said. “The way Bazardo threw the ball all season long we were happy with where we were. It just didn't go our way.”
Seattle failed to make it in the final four innings, and the season ended when Leo Rivas, Dominic Canzone and Rodriguez struck out Jeff Hoffman in the ninth.
“I know it hurts and there is no doubt that it will hurt,” Wilson said. “It's a special team there. It's a shame we had to come out on the wrong side.”
A former catcher, Wilson played for Seattle from 1994 to 2005, reaching the ALCS three times. The Mariners had never gotten past Game 6 — until this season.
“Now we all felt how close we could get and how good this team could be,” Wilson said. “Once you get that, you will strive for it again next year, and I know that will remain your goal.”
