Seattle’s World Series Dream Delayed After Mariners Costly Game 6 Meltdown

Nobody needed to remind the Seattle Mariners that their franchise has never been to a World Series. In fact, they appeared to be a little too aware of it Sunday night.

Now the American League Championship Series comes down to Game 7 for the seventh time in history.

The Mariners better hope they squeezed out all of the jitters in falling 6-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6, because they probably could not have performed any worse with a Series berth at stake.

The Mariners fumbled the ball around on defense. They wasted multiple opportunities at the plate. They failed to execute on the mound. The Blue Jays gladly took advantage, but the Mariners let them off the hook first — kind of how they squandered a 2-0 series lead after the first leg at Rogers Centre.

The Blue Jays put the first four runs on the board in Game 6 against right-hander Logan Gilbert, mostly thanks to the bottom of their lineup. Ernie Clement, Addison Barger and Isiah Kiner-Falefa drove in the runs after Seattle's Julio Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez made costly errors.

But the Jays also stuck out their own chins for a knockout punch. The M's just couldn't land it. The top half of the third, fourth and fifth innings began with lots of action for the M's, but every threat ended with a double play. Seattle even loaded the bases in the third and fourth and against rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage, who was better than his previous outing in Game 1, but still nowhere near as dominating as his turn against the New York Yankees in the Division Series.

The Mariners let him slip through by hitting into the first double plays of Yesavage's young career. Seattle's lineup couldn’t take full advantage of six hits, three walks and a wild pitch by Yesavage in 5 2/3 innings. AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, hit into the first double play. He also later made a throwing error.

The Rogers Centre crowd booed the decision by manager John Schneider to replace Yesavage, but going to the bullpen was the right call, and Louie Varland came through. The Mariners collectively struck out 13 times against Toronto pitching.

The M's get one more shot to put away the Jays and reach the Fall Classic for the first time. Game 7 will be a redo of the pitching matchup in Game 3, which is when the series turned around for Toronto. Seattle's George Kirby goes against Shane Bieber. It seems like a million years ago now, but the Mariners led the series 2-0 and Game 3 by the same score until the Jays scored five runs in the third inning.

Both franchises entered Major League Baseball in 1977, but Toronto reached the Series in 1992 and 1993, winning back-to-back titles. Those winning seasons came a long time ago, too, but the Mariners drought has been a literal eternity for their franchise. All of their great players, from Ken Griffey Jr. to Alex Rodríguez, Ichiro Suzuki, Edgar Martínez and Randy Johnson, never made the Series with the Mariners. The same obviously goes for the great players on the Mariners right now.

The 2025 season is not yet in the books as another M'ssed opportunity, but the ink is almost dry.