Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his sixth home run of the postseason, rookie Trey Yesavage hit seven in five and two-thirds innings, and the Toronto Blue Jays forced a seventh game in the American League Championship Series by defeating the Seattle Mariners 6-2 on Sunday night.
The series will be decided Monday night in Toronto, the second seventh game in Blue Jays history. Toronto lost to Kansas City in the 1985 ALCS.
Seattle, the only major league team without a pennant, will play in a postseason Game 7 for the first time. The winner will face the NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, which begins on Friday.
The Blue Jays ran three double plays behind Yesavage, two of them to escape bases-loaded jams. This made Toronto the first team to make consecutive bases-loaded, inning-loaded double plays in a postseason game. They are only the fourth team to turn two teams in one postseason game.
Toronto has also benefited from Seattle’s top three fouls this season. By comparison, the Blue Jays have committed four errors in 10 playoff games.
Guerrero’s sixth homer in the postseason — all of this year — ties him with Jose Bautista and Joe Carter for the most in Blue Jays history. Bautista threw the ceremonial first ball before the game.
Addison Barger returned and drove in three runs for the Blue Jays, who had lost their previous four games as they faced postseason elimination. That streak extended 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 off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert. The right-hander allowed five runs, four earned, and seven hits in four innings.
Yesavage took the shutout in the sixth. He was charged with two runs and six hits, five of which were singles. Five of his hits came on a split-finger fastball, as did both doubles with the bases loaded.
The 22-year-old Yesavage threw for a season-high 31 blocks. He had 10 whiffs on splitters and five more on sliders.
Three of Yesavage’s six major league starts came in the playoffs. He has won two of three games in the postseason after winning one of three in the regular season.
The Mariners used two walks and a single to load the bases against Yesavage in the third inning but were denied when Cal Raleigh slugger grounded a 3-6-1 double play. Raleigh’s first bat went off his bat at 101 mph.
Raleigh finished 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.
Seattle came up empty again with another bases-loaded chance in the fourth inning when J.B. Crawford grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
The Mariners broke through and chased down Yesavage in the sixth. Josh Naylor’s solo hit was his third home run of the playoffs. Yesavage walked out after Randy Arozarena’s base hit, and Eugenio Suárez greeted Luis Farland with an RBI single.
Toronto took advantage of fielding errors by Julio Rodriguez in center field and Suarez at third base to score two runs in the second, when Barger and Isiah Keener-Faleeva had RBI singles.
Ernie Clement hit a two-run triple off the left field wall in the third inning and scored when Barger scored his second goal of the season.
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 being hit in the right knee by a 95.6 mph home run from Brian Waugh.
Guerrero was hit by a hit by Seattle’s Matt Brash in the seventh inning. Guerrero moved to second on Alejandro Kirk’s single and was leading off a pitch when he scored on a rally throwing error.
Toronto RHP Shane Bieber is expected to start on Monday. Bieber allowed two runs and four hits over six innings in Game 3, a 13-4 Blue Jays win. He struck out eight and walked one as he rebounded from a poor outing against the Yankees in the Division Series.
Seattle RHP George Kirby, who allowed eight runs and eight hits, including three homers, over four innings in Game 3, lined up to start for the Mariners.