TORONTO — Look dad, Game 7!
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his sixth home run this postseason, rookie Trey Yesavage struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings and the Toronto Blue Jays pushed the American League Championship Series to the limit by beating the sloppy Seattle Mariners 6-2 on Sunday night.
The AL pennant will be decided Monday night in Toronto, the second Game 7 in Blue Jays history. Toronto lost to Kansas City in the 1985 ALCS.
“Got to enjoy it, man. This is what we sign up for,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “It’s special and unique, but you have to look at it as a game.”
For one famous baseball family, it will also be a first. Guerrero’s father, Hall of Fame outfielder Vladimir Guerrero, never played in a postseason Game 7 during his 16-year career.
“My dad was telling me, Game 7 is give it all you have,” the Toronto slugger said.
Seattle, the only big league team without a pennant, will play a Game 7 for the first time. The winner faces the NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series beginning Friday.
“Win or go home,” Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez said. “We’re going to lay everything out there.”
Addison Barger homered and drove in three early runs for the Blue Jays, who turned three double plays behind Yesavage — two of them to escape bases-loaded jams.
That made Toronto the first team to induce consecutive bases-loaded, inning-ending double plays in a postseason game, and only the fourth team to turn two in a single postseason game.
“I knew my defense had my back,” Yesavage said.
Toronto also took advantage of Seattle’s season-high three errors. By comparison, the Blue Jays have made four errors in 10 playoff games.
“Balls just kind of in and out of the glove there that put a couple extra guys on base,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Unfortunately, it led to a couple runs.”
Guerrero’s sixth career postseason homer — all this year — tied him with José Bautista and Joe Carter for the most in Blue Jays history.
“This is what you look for from one of the elite players in the game,” Schneider said.
Bautista threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.
Toronto had lost its previous four games when facing postseason elimination. That streak stretched to Game 5 of the 2016 ALCS against Cleveland and included wild-card round losses to Tampa Bay in 2020, Seattle in 2022 and Minnesota in 2023.
Guerrero’s leadoff homer in the fifth made it 5-0 and chased Mariners starter Logan Gilbert. The right-hander allowed four earned runs and seven hits in four-plus innings.
“I thought he had a good fastball, especially early,” Wilson said. “His split was good at times. This is a tough lineup and they did what they had to do to get the ball in play.”
Yesavage took a shutout into the sixth. He was charged with two runs and six hits, five of them singles. Five of his strikeouts came on his split-finger fastball, as did both double-play grounders with the bases loaded.
“I just believed in myself. I know my stuff plays at this level,” Yesavage said. “I know the defense behind me is going to play at the best of their abilities, and getting three double plays in back-to-back-to-back innings was huge.”
The 22-year-old Yesavage threw a season-high 31 splitters. He got 10 whiffs on splitters and five more on sliders.
“He brings the energy,” Guerrero said. “He’s young. He wants to win so bad.”
Three of Yesavage’s six major league starts have come in the playoffs. He’s won twice this postseason after winning one of three outings during the regular season.
Louis Varland got four outs and Jeff Hoffman struck out four over two hitless innings to end it.
The Mariners used two walks and a single to load the bases against Yesavage in the third but were denied when slugger Cal Raleigh grounded into a 3-6-1 double play started by Guerrero and completed by Yesavage covering first base. Raleigh’s first-pitch grounder came off his bat at 101 mph.
“Underappreciated, I think, is how Vlad can play really deep because of his arm,” Schneider said. “In that situation, too, you need some wiggle room for a guy that hits the ball really hard.”
Raleigh finished 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
Seattle came up empty again after another bases-loaded opportunity in the fourth when J.P. Crawford grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
The Mariners broke through and chased Yesavage in the sixth. Josh Naylor’s solo shot was his third home run of the playoffs. Yesavage exited after Randy Arozarena’s base hit, and Eugenio Suárez greeted Varland with a bloop RBI single.
Toronto took advantage of fielding errors by Rodríguez in center field and Suárez at third base to score twice in the second, when Barger and Isiah Kiner-Falefa had RBI singles.
Ernie Clement hit a two-out triple off the left-field wall in the third and scored when Barger homered, his second of the postseason.
George Springer started at designated hitter for the Blue Jays and went 0 for 4 with a walk. Springer exited in the seventh inning of Friday’s Game 5 loss in Seattle after he was hit on the right kneecap by a 95.6 mph pitch from Bryan Woo.
Guerrero was hit by a pitch from Seattle reliever Matt Brash in the seventh. Guerrero moved to second on Alejandro Kirk’s single and was advancing on a wild pitch when he scored on Raleigh’s throwing error.
Up next
Toronto is expected to start RHP Shane Bieber on Monday night. Bieber allowed two runs and four hits over six innings in Game 3, a 13-4 win for the Blue Jays. He struck out eight and walked one as he bounced back from a poor outing against the Yankees in the Division Series.
RHP George Kirby will start for Seattle. He allowed eight runs and eight hits, including three homers, over four innings in Game 3.
Matthew Pouliot
