The Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in a tense Game 7 to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1993, thanks in large part to the bat of George Springer, who produced another shocking moment in the postseason. Springer was in a pile at the plate and was hit in the knee by an errant fastball in the mid-90s, and three days later, Springer added a three-run homer to his already storied postseason resume, ironically with another fastball trailing in the direction of his knee. The explosion was a microcosm not only of Springer’s season (he had the only below-average offensive season of his career in 2024, per wRC+, before posting a career-best in 2025), but of Toronto’s entire season, as the Jayhawks led the majors in comeback wins during the year.
Julio Rodriguez had the first double in the seventh, then Josh Naylor hit a single off the outstretched glove of diving Vladimir Guerrero, who then scored on several batters. After that, Seattle’s first inning was halted by one of the weirder double plays you’ve ever seen, with Naylor completing a 180 on Ernie Clement’s first-base pitch. After some discussion, the umpires decided to rule out two runners, Naylor forced an out, and batter Jorge Polanco passed on Naylor’s interference.
Toronto responded with a performance of its own in the bottom of the first quarter. Springer led off with a walk and Guerrero’s single (luckily for the Mariners, Guerrero’s 110 mph hit was only base hit) set the stage for the eventual Dalton Varshaw RBI knock, but after that, Seattle controlled most of the game.
The Mariners threatened again in the second inning. Back-to-back singles from Randy Arozarena and Eugenio Suárez (another fat single in the middle, only A hit single) and a pinpoint sand bunt from JP Crawford gave Seattle more chances, but its eight- and nine-hole hitters (Leo Rivas and Victor Robles) couldn’t finish their run.
Throughout the series, the quality gap between each team’s bottom three batsmen was stark. Crawford had one of the best individual performances of the postseason in the decisive game, with a standout bunt, a reverse double, a 109 mph grounder in the sixth inning and an acrobatic solo double.
But through seven games, Crawford, Rivas, Robles and Dominic Canzoni (essentially tied with Robles) have combined for just seven hits, while Toronto’s bottom third (Addison Bugg, Andres Jimenez and Isiah Keena-Falefa in Game 7) has racked up 17 hits, including seven extra-base hits.
Rodriguez and AL MVP candidate Carl Rowley hit first home runs in the third and fifth inning, respectively, to give Seattle a two-run lead, and starter George Kirby (who pitched four one-run innings) gave way to Brian Wu in the fifth, making Seattle feel pretty comfortable. After initially struggling to find zone, Wu looked healthy and effective against Toronto’s top lineup in the fifth and sixth innings, including an epic nine-pitch fastball battle with Guerrero that Wu interrupted with a sweeper strikeout outside the plate.
Next comes the seventh inning. At the beginning of the game, Wu threw 28 balls. Bugg’s leadoff walk and Keena Falefa’s single started the game with two runners, and Jimenez struck them out to first. Mariners head coach Dan Wilson then decided to replace Wu with center pitcher Edward Bazardo instead of one of Seattle’s experienced high-leverage arms. Springer blew the roof off the place:
The Blue Jays didn’t have many scoring chances for much of the game. They only had three runs on the board when Springer batted in the seventh inning with runners in scoring position. Two of those came early in the first inning, one on a Gimenez bunt before a Springer bomb. The tense moments before Springer’s at-bat were fleeting, and several Blue Jays burned balls throughout the game, but most of them were against Mariners outfielders. Once Toronto was able to maintain a real threat against Seattle’s two-point lead, Springer capitalized as he has done time and time again in his postseason career. He is now tied with Kyle Schwarber for third all-time with 23 postseason home runs, and he joined Joe Carter and José Bautista in the single most important moment in Blue Jays history.
The aftershocks of Springer’s home run awakened dissatisfaction with Wilson’s bullpen management. As Toronto’s lower third geared up for the team’s best hitter, only Bazardo was warming up in the Mariners bullpen, not their closer Andres Munoz. It’s no exaggeration to say that Munoz has been mediocre this postseason. He did not allow a hit or a run in 7 1/3 innings in October entering Game 7. Unlike late-season teammate Matt Brash (who threw 21 pitches in Game 6), Munoz is also fresh, pitching just two total innings in his first six ALCS games. There’s no guarantee Munoz will face the top player in the lineup again later in the eighth or ninth inning. On the fringe of the Mariners roster last year, Bazardo’s production late in 2025 clearly elevates him to a different, more important role in Seattle’s bullpen, but he’s certainly not Munoz, who looked like a force of nature at his best.
After the game, Wilson told reporters he chose Bazardo for the position because “Bazardo has dealt with those clutch moments all season long.” To call this situation — the seventh inning of the AL Game 7, tied in scoring position and one of the most decorated postseason hitters of all time — a “pivot-type situation” is to undersell it. And that’s before considering the context of the team he’s managing – the Mariners are eight games away from reaching the World Series for the first time in the franchise’s 49-year history. It’s also intellectually inconsistent to use something like role familiarity as a defense when you’ve just taken the ball from your best regular-season starter, who hasn’t pitched out of the bullpen since college but is suddenly being asked to do so twice in this series.
While Wilson’s questionable decision created a unique moment that may have sparked outrage, it wasn’t the only reason the Mariners lost the series. First, from a talent perspective, the Blue Jays are the deserving AL Champions, and they’ve been particularly good throughout the AL. They slashed a combined .271/.345/.475 and hit 11 home runs in seven games under Seattle’s outstanding pitching staff. While several of the Mariners’ stars hit solid numbers throughout the series (namely Rowley, Rodriguez, Suarez, and Naylor), the lineup squandered several key opportunities, including three consecutive innings that ended in a doubleheader in Game 6.
Toronto reached the World Series for the first time since winning back-to-back championships in 1992-93 under Cito Gaston, the second of which ended with Carter’s three-run homer. Thursday marks the 32nd anniversary of that iconic explosion. The next night, the Blue Jays would host Game 1 of the World Series against the Dodgers, who were seeking back-to-back titles, and they hit that iconic three-run shot for a new generation of Toronto fans.
