ALCS - Blue Jays / Mariners

[Frayed Knot]

George Springer HR'd on the first Mariner pitch of the game (bottom 1st) and the Jays' lead remains 1-0 as the bottom of the 4th begins.



btw, Cousin George, who turned 36 a few weeks back, had probably the best season of his career in 2025, built largely on a ridiculously hot second half.

He finished the season at .309/.399/.560 // 959 (165 OPS+) including a scorching 1121 OPS since the ASB

2026 is the final year of the six year contract he signed with/Toronto which had seen him fall to a sub-100 OPS+ (91) in 2024 making it look like the final

half of that contract was going to kind of suck.





The Mariners threatened in top-2, including having a runner thrown out at the plate 5-2, but 14 straight have now gone down thru top-5

Kevin Gausman doing the twirling for Toronto

[Frayed Knot]

Mariners, who played 15 innings on Friday night and then needed to cross the country in order to face the Blue Jays on Sunday, close out Game #1 3-1 on exactly 100 pitches combined.

Jays scored on the first pitch they saw in the game (Springer HR) but never again.

[MFS62]

Going in with a pitcher whose ERA for the season was close to 6 and, on top of it, I think on short rest -- not too mention a tired Mariners bullpen etc. -- I assumed a Jays victory and that it'd be a long-term victory for Seattle if Miller could just eat up a bunch of innings so they could start competing.



Guess not.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think this is only the second time that there has been a postseason series featuring two teams that were expansion partners. (Mets and Astros in 1986 is the other time.)



Other sets of expansion partners are Angels/Rangers, Brewers/Royals, Padres/Nationals, Rockies/Marlins, and Diamondbacks/Rays.

[MFS62]

The M's, riding the back of two 3 run homers, lead the Jays 6-3 after 5.

Later

[MFS62]

9-3 Seattle still batting with the bases loaded in the 8th.

Later

[MFS62]

Just your average 8-6-2 DP.

Ho hum.

The Jays are in a world of hurt.

Later

[MFS62]

Mariners lead 2-0 in the second inning by Rodriguez.

Later

[Centerfield]

This 5 run third is straight out of the 2025 Mets playbook.

[Frayed Knot]

If this were a prize fight they'd have stopped it already.

[Frayed Knot]

Leading off the 8th with a 12-2 lead, Vladdy Jr pulls up at 2nd and thereby passes up the opportunity to try for a cycle.

His four hits tonight are now 1B, 2B, 2B, HR

[Centerfield]

Andres Gimenez again. 2-1 Blue Jays.

[Centerfield]

Castillo doesn't survive the inning. Bases loaded. 1 out.

[Centerfield]

Wow. Rivas picked off with Cal Raleigh at the plate as the tying run.



And then Cal strikes out.

[Frayed Knot]

Max Scherzer's final ML game?



He's throwing a decent game (1 run, 1 hit, 3 BB) and is in line for a 'W', but didn't have a very good season.

Only 17 starts/85 innings (exactly 5/per) and has put up his highest ERA (5.19) and highest WHIP (1.29) since he hit his stride in his fifth season (2013)

And while this goes down as his Age 40 season, it's only because he didn't turn 41 until just after the July 1st cut-off, so he'll turn 42 next July.

Maybe he can still pitch in 2026 but he first needs to convince a ML GM of that this winter and that's going to be a tall task.

I'm betting against it.

[Frayed Knot]

=Centerfield post_id=206986 time=1760663650 user_id=65]
Andres Gimenez again. 2-1 Blue Jays.

[Frayed Knot]

Between in-game interviews, late comebacks from commercials, and promos for other network events, no televised sports production misses (or shrinks the screen) as much live action as baseball telecasts. It's an insult to viewers but I don't think the networks doing so care even a little bit. ESPN seems to be the one which started the whole trend but, as they often say in television coverage, no bad idea goes un-copied [see FS1, TBS, etc]

[Frayed Knot]

Scherzer goes 5-2/3, 3 hits, 4 walks, 5 Ks, and a 5-1 lead (runner on 1st/2-outs his responsibility)

[Frayed Knot]

The Mariners net a run on a 1st & 3rd single but another bad base-running play (had a run cut down at the plate earlier in the game) prevents a big inning.

5-2 Jays after six.

[Centerfield]

Mariners were about to bring the tying run to the plate but Naylor makes the last out trying to go first to third.



Between that and the pickoff, just some terrible baserunning.

[Frayed Knot]

WOWZERS!

Seattle, down 2-1 in the 8th with just 3 hits all game, starts the bottom 8th: HR (Raleigh), Walk, Walk HBP, Grand Slam (E. Suarez)



6-2 Ms, heading to the 9th

[MFS62]

The Jays live by the homer and die by the homer.

Later

[MFS62]

When Carlos Febles, the Jays coach, wears the Jays powder blue uni, he looks like Papa Smurf.



Later

[Frayed Knot]

Game 6:



Mariners load the bases with one out in the 3rd and then again in the 4th ... and went GiDP both times.

Jays, otoh, had bases empty/two outs in the 3rd and went Triple - HR in a three pitch span.

The Mariners have also played some shaky defense and threw in poor base-running (as well as just plain better Blue Jays hitting) which has them down 4-0 in the 4th

[Frayed Knot]

And we'll see a Game 7 tomorrow night.

[whippoorwill]

This is great…so hoping for the Blue Jays. No special reason



Except maybe Cousin George 🙃

[Centerfield]

JRod with a solo HR. 2-1 Mariners.



Love Game 7s. No one breathes for 3 hours.

[Centerfield]

Why would they pull Bieber so early?

[The Hot Corner]

=Centerfield post_id=207112 time=1761010176 user_id=65]
Why would they pull Bieber so early?

[Frayed Knot]

=Centerfield post_id=207112 time=1761010176 user_id=65]
Why would they pull Bieber so early?