“I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure,” Mariners star catcher Cal Raleigh said in disappointment following a devastating 4-3 loss Monday night, as the Toronto Blue Jays took the American League pennant in Game 7 of the ALCS. “That’s what we expected, was to get to the World Series and win the World Series, and that’s what the bar is and standard is. And that’s what we want to hold ourselves accountable to.”
Seattle continues to be the only franchise in the MLB to not attain a World Series berth and were only eight outs away from getting to that year long goal this season. Seattle was in the driver’s seat all night, but it quickly went away when Mariners Eduard Bazardo gave up a no doubt go ahead, three run homer to Toronto’s George Springer in the seventh inning that wound up being the decisive moment of Game 7.
Both teams scored one run in the first, then later in the third and fifth inning, Seattle’s stars Raleigh and Rodriguez both blasted solo home runs to put Seattle in front 3-1 in the fifth inning.
Could Seattle’s manager Dan Wilson keep first time all star Bryan Woo another inning or two? After a sacrifice bunt to put two runners in scoring position, Wilson made the most consequential decision of the season. Woo coming off the injured list this series was huge after missing a month, however he was limited to innings. “Bazardo has been the guy that’s gotten us through those situations, those tight ones, especially in the pivot role,” Wilson said. The game ended with Raleigh in the on-deck circle, after Rodríguez swung through a 3-2 slider from Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman.
“There were plenty of shoulda-woulda-coulda’s that you think about,” said Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford when being asked about the game. Seattle in this series was able to get the guys on base, however they stranded seven runners and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position in Game 7. Throughout this ALCS, they hit .195 with men on base over these seven games, and the bottom of the lineup who were at the plate three times and stranded baserunners, hit .071 in those instances.
The Mariners had series leads of 2-0 and 3-2, becoming just the fourth team to win the first two games of a best-of-seven playoff series on the road not to advance. Teams that won the first two games, had won and moved on in 25 of the previous 28 instances.
Now we wait to see who will be crowned victorious in the Fall Classic. Can the Blue Jays stay focused on the ‘one game at a time’ mentality or will the Dodger’s juggernaut of a team take over?
