Springer’s clutch homer sends Blue Jays to World Series

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George Springer didn’t quite call his shot, one of the most magnificent and monumental home runs in Blue Jays history and the singular, sizzling blast that rocketed them to the World Series for the first time since 1993.

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But he was ready for his moment, hobbled leg and all.

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Springer, the man brought here in 2021 for moments like the one that unfolded in all of its glory on Monday night, hit a mammoth three-run shot in the seventh inning, leading the Jays to a thrilling 4-3 Game 7 win over the Seattle Mariners.

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As he danced around the bases almost blacking out in unbridled joy, an ecstatic sellout crowd of 44,770 at the Rogers Centre serenaded his every step and the fact that this incredible Jays season is headed to the Fall Classic.

“This is why I’m here, to play in these games, these moments,” Springer, the 2017 World Series MVP, said of a game and a swing of his bat that won’t be forgotten as long as professional baseball is played in Toronto. “I want it just as bad as everybody else wants it.

“I love this team so much.”

The feeling is mutual from an enraptured, engaged fan base that spilled out into the downtown streets to celebrate their last-to-first team that will now take on the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers in a series that will begin here on Friday.

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But in the frenzy of the moment, what did Springer remember as he floated around the bases, his arms reaching for the sky as he watched the two runners ahead of him cross the plate to tie it, then following with the winning, on-to-the World Series finish to his memorable homer?

“I had a headache from screaming,” Springer said. “I remember how loud the stadium was. Obviously I’ve watched the (Jose Bautista bat flip) highlights over and over again and it felt like that. Just an incredible moment.”

No matter what happens in the best-of-seven against Shohei Ohtani and the reigning champion Dodgers, the Springer swat is instantly and forever part of team lore.

“That moment will live with me forever,” a jubilant Jays manager John Schneider said as two players doused him in beer outside the Toronto clubhouse, a party that was raging, well-deserved and heading deep into the night.

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“I’ll never forget what I was watching. I’ll never forget how I felt and then you had to go back to managing the game. That was the hardest part.

“It was literally goose bumps. You almost black out.”

A team that defined itself for its resilience and contributions throughout was in many ways led by Springer and the career renaissance of a season he laid down. And now for the biggest moment yet, just days days after being felled by a 96-m.p.h. pitch to the knee and clearly feeling the effects of it.

Facing ace Mariners reliever Eduard Bazardo in the seventh, Springer seized the moment in his sixth career Game 7. Signed to a six-year, $150-million deal in 2021, he was the start of the big-money, we’re-serious movement spearheaded by team president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins and financed by owner Rogers.

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“When we signed George, the draw was to help some younger guys that we already had here, a guy that had been at the highest level of the game and won,” Schneider said. “He’s set the tone of who we are. This team has an identity more than any team I’ve been a part of. I think that George does a phenomenal job of leading by example, but also talking about what we stand for.”

Schneider is well aware that Springer was hurting over the final two games of the series, evident by the fact he wasn’t able to make decent contact while looking uncomfortable merely trying. Until he wasn’t.

“I wouldn’t want anyone else up there even if he had one leg,” Schneider said. “There’s no way to measure clutch but George has shown that time and time again that he is that. It is amazing to watch him. You can see him navigating moments.

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“What it meant for this city and this country with one swing of the bat … it was incredible.”

The team is more than Springer, of course, a group of comeback kids united like few in pro sports. It’s how they led the majors in come-from-behind wins this season and how they resolutely fought back from an 0-2 deficit in this series.

Even Monday had its challenges as the bats were sleepy, starter Shane Bieber wasn’t his sharpest and the Jays seemed headed for a crushing end to an uplifting season as they trailed 3-1 for much of it.

Then Springer, sore leg and all, turned that all around with one majestic swing, willing it to see another challenge.

On to the World Series, led by a man who knows his way.

Our takeaways from an incredible game, night and scene in downtown Toronto.

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ALL HANDS ON DECK

Schneider was leaving nothing to chance, employing the pitchers he trusted most to help keep the game close.

Both Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt, central veteran arms in the Jays’ rotation, pitched scoreless innings to get the game to closer Jeff Hoffman.

And what a rousing performance it was from him after pitching two shutdown innings the previous night.

Hoffman, beleaguered at times during the season, shut down the Mariners with a 1-2-3 inning to trigger the massive party that awaited.

“I was fired up but I knew I had a job to do,” said Hoffman, an off-season signee to be the team’s new closer. “I had to focus and finish this off.”

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THE SCENE

The Rogers Centre was humming for a second consecutive night following Sunday’s entertaining 6-2 win to force Game 7. There was a tinge of nervousness though, especially after the Mariners jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first with Bieber not at his best.

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The longer the Jays bats were benign — their only inning with more than one hit until the sensational seventh was the first — the more desperate they became.

But from the moment Springer put bat to ball in that homer for the ages for this franchise, the stadium that provided the best home-field advantage in baseball in 2025 was on fire.

The sellout crowd that Jays players have fed off of throughout urged them to the finish line against a plucky Mariners team that fell just short from advancing to the World Series for the first time in franchise history.

The Jays also became just the fourth team in MLB history to come back and win a seven-game series after dropping the first two at home, an on-brand stat for this group if there ever was one.

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And what a celebration it was on the field afterward — ALCS MVP Vlad Guerrero Jr. to his knees at first base, players dancing on the infield and a Rogers Centre party for the ages.

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THE HOMER

It will be played on loop for a while, but the Springer thing truly was a thing of beauty travelling 381 feet to left-centre field and leaving Springer’s bat at 99.1 m.p.h.

Even better, Addison Barger led off the inning with a walk and Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a single to set the stage for Springer.

Just like that, a game the Jays trailed 3-1 was 4-3. And it was bring on the Dodgers.

MVP!, MVP!

Even with the Springer heroics, no surprise that  Guerrero Jr. captured MVP honours as he continues to emerge as a playoff star and the leader of the Jays offence.

“I feel great, very proud of this, even more that I’m going to the World Series,” Guerrero said. “But the job is not done. Four more wins.”

Guerrero finished the ALCS batting .385 with three doubles, three homers, three RBI and four walks and joined Roberto Alomar (1992) and Dave Stewart (1993) as the only previous Jays to claim the honour.

“I love this team, I love my teammates,” Guerrero said. “When you see guys like Bassitt and Gausman (coming into the game), that motivates myself to do anything, to win every game that I am capable of doing.”

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