TORONTO (AP) — One win from their first World Series, the Seattle Mariners never got off the ground Sunday night.
Seattle bounced into inning-ending double plays in three straight turns at bat and made a season-high three errors in a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays that forced the American League Championship Series to Game 7.
“We had opportunities,” Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh said after going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. “We thought we did a great job with our at-bats. We were able to get people on. It’s just one of those days where we couldn’t get the big run home. Give them credit. They kept us off the board.”
The only major league team without a pennant, Seattle will play a Game 7 for the first time in franchise history Monday night at Toronto, with a chance to face the NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers for the World Series title starting Friday.
Trailing 2-0 in the third, the Mariners loaded the bases with one out against rookie Trey Yesavage before Raleigh hit a first-pitch fastball 100.5 mph to first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who made a backhand pickup and started a 3-6-1 double play.
With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth and Seattle behind 4-0, J.P. Crawford pulled a splitter to second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who flipped to shortstop Andrés Giménez to begin a 4-6-3 double play. Toronto became the first team to induce consecutive bases-loaded, inning-ending GIDPs in a postseason game.
With one on and one out in the fifth, Julio Rodríguez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
“We put the ball in play,” Rodríguez said. “We just put it in the wrong place.”
Rodríguez bobbled Daulton Varsho’s leadoff single to center field in the second and third baseman Eugenio Suárez allowed Ernie Clement’s grounder to pop out of his glove. Addison Barger and Kiner-Falefa followed with RBI singles off Logan Gilbert for a 2-0 lead.
Guerrero advanced from second base to third on Matt Brash’s seventh-inning wild pitch and scored when Raleigh’s throw from foul territory on the third-base side of the plate skipped down the left-field line.
“You’ve got to play clean baseball,” Raleigh said. “You can’t give up extra outs, especially to a team like that. That was part of the difference tonight.”
Seattle will start George Kirby in Game 7 and Toronto will send Shane Bieber to the mound. The Mariners faced elimination against Detroit in the Division Series but advanced thanks to a 15-inning win in Game 5.
“I’m excited for the opportunity,” Raleigh said.
After going 0 for 4 in his third straight hitless game, Seattle’s Jorge Polanco tried to be positive.
“We never give up,” Polanco said. “We have another opportunity tomorrow.”
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