The Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners will battle for a World Series berth in Toronto’s Rogers Centre, in a high-stakes Game 7 of the American League Series Championship (ALCS) on Monday night.
Toronto clawed its way back from an 0-2 deficit in the first two games of the best-of-seven ALCS, eventually tying the series and forcing Game 7 tonight.
The do-or-die game gets underway just after 8 p.m. ET at Rogers Centre.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Toronto getting a chance to clinch a series victory and path to the World Series — and all in front of a home crowd — is “everything that we play for and everything that our fans deserve.”
Starting pitcher Shane Bieber, who won a prior ALCS start for Toronto in Game 3, gets the ball for the Blue Jays.
Bieber is a Cy Young Award winner who Toronto traded for in July with an eye to having him pitch in big games like tonight’s Game 7.
The Mariners will turn to George Kirby, the Seattle starter who Toronto hammered for eight earned runs in that same Game 3 that the Blue Jays won by an eventual score of 13-4.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson said his team has “an incredible opportunity” in Game 7, and expressed confidence in his team’s ability to perform under the “undeniable” pressure of the potentially season-ending ball game.
“We’ve been in situations, you know, particularly down the stretch in September, where you kind of had to win — you had to win that night,” he said Monday afternoon.
“I think these guys have developed a good strategy with how to deal with that and that’s all part of embracing what’s ahead of us.”
The Mariners have made some slight adjustments to their starting lineup for Game 7, moving Canadian Josh Naylor to third spot in the batting order and bumping his teammate Jorge Polanco down to the fourth spot.
Another change is outfielder Víctor Robles will be in right field for Game 7, in place of Dominic Canzone, who played that position the night before.
Toronto slugger George Springer says he and his teammates are hungry for the challenge of taking on the Mariners.
“This is what you play for as a player. This is what you want,” he told reporters, a few hours ahead of Monday’s game. “I think everyone’s excited, so I look forward to it.”
Springer, a former World Series champion and MVP, has hit two home runs and scored five runs in the ALCS, but he’s also had the misfortune of being hit in the knee by a fastball, late in Game 5.
He said his focus is what he can do on the field.
“I have a job to do, so I expect to go do it. It doesn’t really matter how I feel,” he said.
The Jays lost the first two games of the ALCS, falling 3-1 to Seattle in Game 1, and then 10-3 in Game 2.
But the Blue Jays’ bats came alive over the next two games and Toronto managed to claw back into contention with that decisive 13-4 win in Game 3, and then an 8-2 victory over Seattle in Game 4.
Breaking down the Jays’ Game 6 win against the Mariners
Seattle re-took the series lead with a 6-2 win in Game 5, but Toronto bounced back from that defeat to claim Sunday’s Game 6, also by a score of 6-2.
While Toronto’s bats put enough runs on the board to keep Seattle from getting ahead in Game 6, the Blue Jays also got a good performance from rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage and then solid backup from the bullpen — first from reliever Louis Varland, and then two innings of work from closer Jeff Hoffman — to notch the critical win.
The winner of Monday night’s game will advance to the World Series and face the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers won the National League Championship Series in four straight games, sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers, and, as a result, earning a week’s rest before the start of the World Series.
The Dodgers are the defending World Series champions, and the team has won two of the past five World Series titles (last year and also in 2020, a year that had a COVID-shortened baseball season).
Toronto has not been to the World Series in more than 30 years, with its last appearances in the Fall Classic coming during the Blue Jays’ back-to-back championship runs in 1992 and 1993.
Seattle, on the other hand, has never made it to the World Series.
