> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Rapid Reaction: Mariners Stuff Blue Jays 10-3 in Statement Win on Canadian Thanksgiving - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/mariners-stuff-blue-jays-10-3-in-statement-win-on-canadian-thanksgiving/ - Published: 2025-10-14T01:10:20.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:57:45.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: News, Mariners, ALCS, 2025 MLB Playoffs, Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arozarena, Cal Raleigh, Logan Gilbert, Josh Naylor, Mitch Garver, Leo Rivas, Jorge Polanco, J.P. Crawford, Eduard Bazardo, Emerson Hancock [Embed from Getty Images](https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2240861287?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) TORONTO, Canada — The Mariners’ Game 1 victory against the Blue Jays was described as a “steal” by much of the North American continent, with the Mariners exhausted from a five-hour, 15-inning marathon in Game 5 of the ALDS. Game 2, on the other hand, was a *statement*. Seattle got out to an early lead, lost it soon after, and then took the Blue Jays to task in the final five innings of the game. The mighty Blue Jays, after scoring more than nine runs a game on average in the ALDS, have scored two runs on average in the first two contests of the ALCS. It wasn’t what the Ontarian crowd wanted for Canadian Thanksgiving, but for the Mariners, it was a sizzling stuffed turkey dripping in delicious gravy. ### Julio Rodríguez makes Trey Yesavage pay for early wildness with a three-run shot in the first inning, but the Jays starter settles down after that. Toronto entered the playoffs with an ace up their sleeve in the rookie Trey Yesavage. Only called up in mid-September, the Jays’ top prospect had made a stunning playoff entrance in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Yankees, striking out 11 batters in less than six innings without giving up a hit. While he also mixes in a fair amount of sliders (and has a cutter that hasn’t yet made an appearance in the majors), his bread and butter is a fastball-splitter mix. His 64-degree arm angle aids the up-and-down action on those two pitches, and when he’s on his A-game, it’s almost impossible for opposing batters to work ahead. Luckily for the Mariners, Yesavage took a bit of time to get going. Randy Arozarena took advantage of a gifted second ball from home plate umpire Doug Eddings (on what should have been strike three) and worked the count full before wearing one on the arm. Cal Raleigh laid off a bunch of close stuff to draw a free pass and put runners on first and second with nobody out. Yesavage made two mistakes to Julio Rodríguez, enough to give the Mariners a three-run lead. The first slider out over the plate went unchallenged by Seattle’s center fielder, but the same thing on a 1-2 count ended up soaring into the seats down the left field line. The Mariners took an early 3-0 lead. As it turned out, Rodríguez took advantage of the last chance Yesavage gave Seattle in that inning. Josh Naylor was able to work a single on a fastball in a different time zone, but the Jays’ starter worked cleanly through the other three guys he faced, and it went to the Jays’ bats in the bottom half. ### Logan Gilbert struggles out of the gate and allows Toronto to tie, his location seemingly affected by his short rest. During Gilbert’s relief appearance in Game 5 of the ALDS, he heavily depended on a pinpoint slider to churn through outs against the Tigers lineup. That pitch, however, had a serious case of the Mondays in Game 2 of the ALCS. Gilbert consistently missed out over the plate with that pitch, and with concurrent issues getting the splitter over the plate at all, the Blue Jays had more than enough opportunities to strike back. George Springer, leading off the game, saw the ball as clear as day out of Gilbert’s hand, following up two hard foul balls with a double off the base of the fence in left center field. Nathan Lukes dribbled a soft ground ball to first that Naylor was unable to throw cleanly, allowing him to second. Gilbert handled the next two guys, but Alejandro Kirk barreled another hanging slider into right center field for Toronto’s second run. Ernie Clement picked up in the second where his teammates had left off, cracking another hit in his already-impressive postseason campaign, and he got to second and third on successive groundouts. Springer peskily kept himself around with two outs, fouling off a couple pitches at the bottom of the zone and getting two gifted balls from Eddings for a walk. Lukes promptly drove him in with another single, tying the game at three runs apiece. Although Gilbert got through the third without any runners reaching base—and had only thrown 58 pitches by that point—Mariners manager Dan Wilson went to the bullpen for the fourth inning. Perhaps the relatively early pull offers an indication that the M’s might be open to tapping Gilbert for some innings on three days of rest in Game 5, but the decision was most immediately influenced by the starter’s struggles on the field in Toronto. ### Jorge Polanco does it again, scraping the wall in right center field to give Seattle another three-run lead. The Friday night lights had illuminated Polanco’s ALDS-winner in Seattle, putting an exclamation point on an excellent comeback season. Toronto saw his two RBIs make the final difference two days later in Seattle’s statement Game 1 win. And with Game 2 tied in the top of the fifth inning, Polanco once again came up big in the playoffs for the Mariners. After Yesavage had gotten through the order twice around, yielding the occasional chance but keeping the M’s off the board, Blue Jays manager John Schneider left him on the mound to get some outs in the fifth. Seattle, however, got off on the right foot in that inning, as Randy Arozarena chopped a first-pitch infield hit and found himself at second due to a throwing error. Schneider, with memories of Cal Raleigh’s Toronto heroics fresh in his mind, gave first base to the clout-crashing catcher before bringing Louis Varland in from the bullpen. The move appeared to work at first, as Varland mixed eye levels against Julio Rodríguez and froze him on a middle-middle fastball for a strikeout, but a similar pitch against Polanco did not have the confusing mix beforehand to get the second baseman off balance. Polanco whacked the ball to deep right center field, Varland watching to see whether either of his outfielders could get to it. A look of exasperation washed across his lips as he saw it clear the fence by about a single foot. But a home run by a hair is worth the same as a tape-measure nuke, and Seattle led 6-3\. ### Seattle piles on runs in the sixth and seventh innings, giving them a large advantage in the late innings as Josh Naylor does it with the glove and the bat. Polanco’s homer set the tone for the rest of the game, giving the Mariners a lead they would not relinquish. Josh Naylor, one of the sparse Canadians on Seattle’s roster, kept George Springer off the bases in the bottom half of the fifth with a stellar dive on a grounder down the line, making up for his first-inning error as Eduard Bazardo worked his second scoreless frame of the afternoon. Before he went on to make an interesting nugget of history in the seventh, however, the rest of the lineup would put in a run of their own. Mitch Garver, pinch-hitting for Dominic Canzone with the southpaw Mason Fluharty on the rubber, cracked a drive to dead center field. Daulton Varsho, a gold-glover who had come up big with the glove in the third inning, seemed to lose it in the lights as he tracked back to the wall. It bounced off the padding a couple of feet wide of his glove and died out in the grass, and by the time Toronto’s infield got it back, Garver stood at third. Leo Rivas pinch-ran for Garver, but J.P. Crawford’s bloop single to left would have scored anyone from 90 feet away. The top of the seventh was when it really broke open. Polanco singled his way to first with one away, bringing Naylor to the plate for the fourth time. Brandon Fisher gave him a good pitch to work with, a 3-2 slider right down the pipe, and Naylor launched it over the right field fence. Seattle had a 9-3 lead from that blast, the very first time a Canadian-born player hit a postseason home run in Canada for a visiting team. Naylor did it, of course, on Canadian Thanksgiving. The Mariners’ 10th and final run came later in the inning, as reliever Yariel Rodríguez walked the bases loaded before giving up a sacrifice fly to J.P. Crawford. Toronto was able to put a lid on Seattle’s production for the rest of the contest, but that mattered not one iota. ### Emerson Hancock has command issues in the final two innings, but finishes out the game without any Jays crossing the plate. With the Mariners leading 10-3 going into the bottom, Dan Wilson went to struggling prospect Emerson Hancock to try and gauge his playoff readiness in a relatively low-pressure situation. The prognosis was iffy, however. Hancock threw 39 total pitches, with 21 missing the plate and 18 going in for strikes (though several were some pretty nice gifts from Doug Eddings). But although his first seven pitches in the bottom of the eighth missed the plate and ended up handing out three free passes, Toronto was unable to take advantage of any of these baserunners. Hancock relied mostly on his two fastballs for the majority of his work, but he did notch a strikeout on a changeup and threw in a few sweepers during his two innings. George Springer made the final two outs for the Blue Jays, grounding into a game-ending double play. That was not the vision most had watching Springer blast a home run on the first pitch Seattle threw in Game 1, nor the idea of how Game 2 would end after he torched a double into the gap against Logan Gilbert. But that’s what ended up happening on Monday afternoon in Toronto, and for the first time in team history, the Mariners are up two games to none in the American League Championship Series.