Mariners strike first as Blue Jays bats listless in ALCS opener

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In many ways, it was the same as the odds in baseball rising the deeper you got into October.

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Voltage. Drama. And this night, in any case, there are not so many hard feelings.

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But boy, Game 1 of the best-of-seven ALCS between the Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners started with a bang in front of a sold-out crowd of 44,474 at Rogers Center on Sunday night.

The first pitch the Toronto hitter faced—a rejuvenated George Springer—caused an eruption under the closed roof as the Jays began their first trip to this round of the MLB postseason since 2016 at full volume.

Unfortunately, it was the only meaningful contact to put the Blue Jays out of the game as a dangerous Mariners team struck first with a clinical 3-1 win.

Much of the evening was an exciting battle between the 1977 expansion cousins, a tense game that turned into a pitching duel six innings later.

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But this year the lead was limited, and when Cal Raleigh's big bat dropped a 420-foot bomb to right-center, the Jays never led again.

Toronto starter Kevin Gausman, who was excellent up to that point, realized the error when he snapped his bat, put his hands on his head and hit his glove. And after retiring 15 times in a row, the Jays suddenly lost the team's only lead of the night.

Our takeaways from an exciting night of playoff baseball that showed what kind of battle the Jays face.

RUN STARVING

The big mood killer that night for the Jays, who were looking to take advantage of a tired Mariners team, was their inability to get any support at the plate.

The offense, which allowed 34 runs in four games against the Yankees, struggled to get much value out of Mariners starter Bryce Miller as he recovered from ringing in his ears after a blast at Springer.

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In fact, Miller, who isn't the most dangerous player in the Mariners' rotation, shut down the Jays after that. After his first pitch of the game, Miller allowed only one hit and no more runs, giving his weary team six big innings. Miller had only made one quality start all season before Sunday.

The Jays' offense, which was so impressive against the Yankees, never really picked up steam. And this on a night when the Mariners should have been at their most vulnerable, given that it began just over 40 hours after their marathon 15-inning Game 5 victory over the Detroit Tigers ended in Seattle.

Besides Springer's homer, Jay's only hit was an innocuous single off Anthony Santander in the second.

RESET TO DIP TRUCK

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The story of contentious words between Jays manager John Schneider and M (Big Dumper) slugger Raleigh was a pleasant sideline to this year's ALCS.

But as soon as Schneider mentioned in his pregame press conference on Sunday that he didn't want “that to be the narrative of the series at all,” did you get the feeling that it was entirely possible?

Of course, it was Raleigh, who hit 60 home runs in the regular season, who spoiled Gausman's big effort. A mammoth solo homer in the sixth marked the Mariners' first run. When the Mariners' next batter, Julio Rodriguez, walked, Gausman's night was over. After the Jays' leadoff hitter of the game, Brandon Little, struggled, an RBI single from Jorge Polanco was the game-winner.

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But let's get back to the most interesting part.

The verbal spat between the two executives began in 2023 when Schneider gave up Raleigh's two-run homer against the Jays.

“He's not very difficult to serve when you hit your serves,” Schneider said. “He's hitting .200.”

After this, Raleigh responded like this: “I have nothing to say. If you have nothing to say, don’t say it if you don’t want it to come back to haunt you.”

Welcome to the bright light of ALCS, where everything old is new again, fair or unfair.

“First of all, I was the interim manager who said the same thing to try to encourage my team, which obviously I shouldn't have said,” Schneider said on Sunday. “I have a lot of respect for him as a player. You have to know where he is at all times.”

AROUND THE BASES

The Jays lost right fielder Nathan Lux to what the team described as a right knee contusion after he fouled a ball off his knee during an at-bat… Springer, back to open things up, was the first home run in Blue Jays postseason history… Although the Mariners' offense wasn't all that flashy, they managed seven hits against the Jays… The Mariners have now won their last three postseason games in Toronto after beating the Jays in a best-of-three Wildcard Series here in 2022.

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