Heartbreak: Mariners lose ALCS Game 7 on Springer’s game-winning home run, 4-3
For a franchise that’s waited 48 years to kick down the doors of history, the agony felt all too similar.
They were destined for their first trip to the World Series in Seattle Mariners history.
Then George Springer took it all away.
The Mariners led Game 7 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning. They were nine outs away from their first league pennant in their 48 years of existence. Seattle starter George Kirby was excellent. Julio Rodriguez provided the early fireworks, and Cal Raleigh dumped another monstrous solo home run in the biggest game of their lives.
But Springer, the Blue Jays designated hitter with a history of frustrating the Mariners, delivered the blow that defined Seattle’s half-century of almosts — a mesmerizing, go-ahead, three-run homer that sent a sellout crowd at Rogers Centre into an uncontrollable frenzy.
Springer’s blast etched his name into Toronto history, and the Blue Jays defeated the Mariners, 4-3, in Game 7 of the ALCS. A fantastic baseball game will forever be remembered by the Pacific Northwest as the pennant that never was.
“This is not the end,” Eugenio Suarez said, officially a free agent after the 2025 season. “I feel like the future for this organization is huge, and we have to feel comfortable about that. We have to go home, think about it, and turn the page quick.
“It’s time to go home. It’s time to rest. Prepare yourself for next year, be a dad, be a husband, and be a good person outside, too.”
Rodriguez chased a low slider that found the dirt and ended the game on a 3-2 payoff pitch. Raleigh, who could’ve represented the go-ahead run with Rodriguez aboard, could only watch from the on-deck circle. Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman lifted both arms to the sky as teammates surrounded the mound, jumping for joy.
This World Series-or-Go Home Game 7 presented two outcomes for the Mariners: It was destined to be either the greatest day in team history, or the worst.
But this?
This was soul-crushing.
The American League pennant was firmly in Seattle’s grasp. Then it melted out of a closed fist.
Raleigh couldn’t hold back tears. “It just sucks,” he told reporters in a clubhouse drowning in silence. “It hurts.”
The man who carried this team this far, the man who told Seattle they might as well “go win the whole (expletive) thing,” had fallen short. He carried the weight of a loss that wasn’t his fault on his shoulders, like the face of a franchise would.
“I know this stings,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said. “There’s no question that it’s going to sting. But the kind of season they had, doing things that no team in this organization has ever done, and knocking on the door of a World Series… it’s due to how hard they’ve worked, how hard they’ve played all season long.
“It’s a special team in there. It’s just a shame we had to come out on the wrong side of this one.”
Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo, a postseason reliever since his September pec injury, notched two scoreless innings before entering for the seventh. He walked Toronto’s Addison Barger on five pitches. Then he allowed a ground-ball single to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, placing the tying runs aboard with a 3-1 lead.
When Blue Jays nine-hitter Andres Gimenez advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt for the inning’s first out, Wilson had seen enough. Springer loomed on deck as Seattle’s skipper pivoted to right-hander Eduard Bazardo, tasked with getting the biggest two outs of his career.
He couldn’t.
Springer unleashed a vicious, franchise-altering swing on Bazardo’s second pitch — a sinker left belt-high and sent 381 feet into the left field seats at Rogers Centre. He rounded first base, still screaming. So was Canada.
The wound is still fresh, but a blow this devastating rivals the most tragic moments in Seattle sports history. Yes, even the catastrophic goal-line interception thrown by Russell Wilson at the one-yard line in Super Bowl XLIX. The Seattle Seahawks were defending champions. The Mariners are the only MLB franchise to reach the big dance; Springer refused it.
Should Wilson have instead pivoted to Andres Munoz, the fear-creating, All-Star closer to face Springer with the game on the line? Should he have kept Woo on the mound?
“You make your decisions,” Wilson said, “and sometimes, you have to live and die with it. Again, the way Bazardo has thrown the ball all season long, we were comfortable with where we were... It just didn’t go our way.”
The Mariners struck first in the biggest game of their 48-year history. Rodriguez rifled a leadoff double down the left field line in the top of the first, a runner in scoring position for Josh Naylor’s one-out single poked beyond the reach of Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Rodriguez coasted home. And before Toronto could bat, their sellout crowd fell quiet. Mariners 1, Blue Jays 0.
With one out and Naylor at first, Jorge Polanco grounded a textbook double-play ball near the shortstop. Blue Jays third baseman Ernie Clement charged and stepped on second base when his throw to first base plunked Naylor, who had jumped in front of the throw to prevent a potential double play. Blue Jays manager John Schneider immediately entered play, hands raised in confusion. Polanco was ruled out at first base following a lengthy discussion among MLB’s six officials.
Seattle’s early lead was short-lived. Mariners Game 7 starter Kirby issued a rare, leadoff walk to Springer, who came around to score on Daulton Varsho’s two-out, RBI single to center field. Mariners 1, Blue Jays 1.
In the third, J-Rod brought the lead back. He fell behind Toronto’s Shane Bieber with a foul ball off of his lower left leg, prompting Wilson to check on his young star near home, before blasting a breaking ball to left center for a solo homer.
Rodriguez was a man on a mission, appearing destined to bring a starved city to the promised land. Mariners 2, Blue Jays 1.
“We put in so much work and effort throughout this whole year, and it’s over,” Rodriguez said. “That’s also part of the game too, you know?
“You don’t expect anything less for the team (now). After getting here, after knowing what we’re capable of, I just feel like there’s nothing less than this for us.”
After a shaky first inning, Kirby settled in. He allowed singles in each of the second and fourth innings but never let another Blue Jay into scoring position, completing four strong innings of one-run baseball. The pinpoint command expected from one of the game’s best strike-throwers returned in the biggest moment of his career, touching 99 mph with a vicious sinker.
Just five days earlier in Game 3, Kirby allowed eight runs to this dangerous Toronto lineup. A story of redemption, a story of conquering demons, will forever be overshadowed by Springer’s moment. His final line Monday night: Four innings, four hits, one earned run, one walk, and three strikeouts.
It was up to the Mariners to add to their 2-1 lead, and Raleigh provided just that in the fifth: ‘Big Dumper’ delivered a monstrous solo blast to right field off Toronto’s Louis Varland, a changeup mistakenly left over the middle that Raleigh barreled.
The towering, 381-foot charge was Raleigh’s 65th home run of the season (regular season and postseason), the most in American League history. None have mattered more.
But Seattle knew this game was far from over. They had watched division leads, postseason hopes, and league pennants slip through their fingers before. They led this series 2-0. They led it 3-2. And they knew Toronto was one of baseball’s best comeback teams, never out of a game even when the scoreboard says something different.
So when Woo walked Barger and surrendered a ground-ball single with no outs in the seventh, all bets were off.
Springer’s momentous blast proved it. The Blue Jays have clinched their first World Series appearance since 1993, meeting the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I’m super proud of these guys,” a tearful Raleigh said. “It was a great team effort. I love every guy in this room.
“But ultimately, it’s not what we wanted. I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure.
“That’s what we expected, was to get to a World Series and win a World Series. That’s what the bar is and (what) the standard is. That’s what we want to hold ourselves accountable to.
“Like I said, I’m proud of the guys in this room. I thought we fought all the way to the end. It was a great group of guys, and I love every single one of them.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2025 at 8:03 PM with the headline "Heartbreak: Mariners lose ALCS Game 7 on Springer’s game-winning home run, 4-3."
