Down to their last six outs and in danger of going back to Canada facing elimination, the Seattle Mariners battled back to produce two of the biggest swings in franchise history.
Cal Raleigh’s leadoff home run tied Game 5 of the American League Championship Series in the bottom of the eighth, and four batters later, Eugenio Suárez unleashed an opposite-field grand slam that lifted the Mariners to a 6-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at T-Mobile Park.
Suddenly, the Mariners lead this ALCS 3-2, with two chances to win their first AL pennant and reach their first World Series in franchise history. They’ll have to do it at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, with Game on 6 Oct. 19.
They’ve never been just one win away from reaching the World Series. And the task would have been so much more enormous without their eighth-inning heroics.
On the verge of getting swept out of Seattle in three games, the Mariners got the opening they needed when Blue Jays manager John Schneider tabbed lefty Brendon Little to start the eighth.
Little had blown Game 1 by allowing an inherited run to score and giving up another, but Schneider figured that by turning the switch-hitting Raleigh around, it’d mitigate his significant power.
Instead, for the 64th time this season, Raleigh found the seats. Tie game. Bedlam reigned at T-Mobile, but it was only the beginning.
Little, forced to face two more batters, walked both of them, and right-hander Seranthony Dominguez was summoned – but he hit Randy Arozarena with a pitch.
Enter Suárez, a late-season trade acquisition beloved from his first stint with the Mariners who opened the scoring with an opposite-field homer in the second inning. He rode Dominguez’s 98-mph fastball straight out to right – and the Mariners moved to the brink of a pennant.
Here’s how Game 5 unfolded:
Eugenio Suarez grand slam stuns Blue Jays
The Mariners weren’t done after Cal Raleigh’s game-tying homer in the eighth, loading the bases with nobody out on two walks and a hit batter.
Facing Seranthony Dominguez, Eugenio Suarez hit an opposite-field grand slam to give the Mariners a 6-2 advantage. T-Mobile Park is absolutely rocking in Seattle.
That may go down as the biggest hit in Mariners history.
Cal Raleigh home run ties Game 5 vs Blue Jays
The Big Dumper wasn’t going to let the Seattle Mariners get swept at home without a fight.
Raleigh, batting right-handed for the first time in this American League Championship Series, skied a home run just over the fence in left field to tie Game 5, 2-1, in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Down to their last six outs and with Toronto on the verge of taking a 3-2 ALCS lead back to Canada, Raleigh was nonplussed when the Blue Jays called on Brendon Little to start the eighth. Little let an inherited runner score during Seattle’s Game 1 win at Toronto and Raleigh punished him immediately.
George Springer injury as Blue Jays star hit by pitch
George Springer, one of the Toronto Blue Jays’ most potent offensive weapons, left Game 5 of the American League Championship Series after he was struck on the right knee by a Bryan Woo pitch.
Springer, who drove in the Blue Jays’ first run with an RBI double in the fifth inning, doubled over in pain immediately after Woo’s 95.6 mph sinker struck him in the knee.
Toronto takes sixth-inning lead
Bryan Woo’s first pitching appearance since September came in an unforgiving spot. And the Toronto Blue Jays weren’t in a forgiving mood.
Woo, the Mariners ace who had to build back up from a late-season pectoral injury, gave up a double to Alejandro Kirk on the first pitch he threw and an RBI single to Ernie Clement as the Blue Jays took a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning of ALCS Game 5.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman gave up just three hits in his first five innings on 78 pitches, while the Mariners have already dipped two deep into their bullpen.
Mariners yank Bryce Miller and Blue Jays tie score in fifth
Dan Wilson moved aggressively to make sure the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t ambush his starting pitcher, Bryce Miller. Yet the move backfired, and now the Seattle Mariners must piece together four more innings from a shaky bullpen in a tie game.
The Mariners manager hooked Miller in the fifth inning, despite Miller’s four shutout innings and just 56 pitches. Top set-up man Matt Brash, though, couldn’t hold the line as he gave up a two-out RBI double to George Springer and tie the game 1-1 heading to the bottom of the fifth.
Miller faced just one batter in the fifth, giving up a bloop single to Addison Barger, and Brash recorded two quick outs, but found trouble when the lineup flipped.
Springer narrowly missed a two-run homer, and nearly sparked another big Blue Jays inning after Nathan Lukes walked, bringing up Vladimir Guerrero Jr. But Guerrero, up 3-1 in the count, whiffed on a nasty slider and then couldn’t catch up to a 96 mph sinker to end the inning.
Eugenio Suárez home run puts Mariners in front
For the second consecutive game, the Seattle Mariners got a second-inning solo home run. Now, the hard part: Making it stand up.
Eugenio Suárez hit a solo home run off Kevin Gausman to open the scoring in Game 5 of the ALCS, the series knotted 2-2.
The Mariners have lost both games at T-Mobile Park and this is their last chance to get a win at home. In Game 4, Josh Naylor homered off Max Scherzer, but the Blue Jays’ bats eventually clubbed Mariners pitching in an 8-2 Toronto victory.
So far, Bryce Miller’s been up to the task, with three strikeouts in two innings of work.
Bryce Miller works around Vlad Jr. double
Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-out double in the top of the first, but Mariners starter Bryce Miller bounced back to strike out Alejandro Kirk to end the inning and strand the runner in scoring position.
Seattle third baseman Eugenio Suarez made a nice over-the-shoulder catch earlier in the frame.
Blue Jays lineup today
George Springer (R) DH
Nathan Lukes (L) LF
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (R) 1B
Alejandro Kirk (R) C
Daulton Varsho (L) CF
Ernie Clement (R) 3B
Addison Barger (L) RF
Isiah Kiner-Falefa (R) 2B
Andrés Giménez (L) SS
Mariners lineup today: ALCS Game 5
Julio Rodríguez (R) CF
Cal Raleigh (S) C
Jorge Polanco (S) DH
Josh Naylor (L) 1B
Randy Arozarena (R) LF
Eugenio Suárez (R) 3B
J.P. Crawford (L) SS
Dominic Canzone (L) RF
Leo Rivas (S) 2B
Mariners manager Dan Wilson on ALCS becoming a best-of-three
‘I think this is very emblematic of where we find ourselves a lot during the season. It’s a two-out-of-three series at this point and we have been successful a lot of times in a two-out-of-three series.
‘I think our guys, they know what it takes to fight from this position. That’s been sort of a key to our entire season, really, has just been their ability to be resilient, to fight back, to fight hard, and fight from inning one to nine. And that’s really going to become front stage and center here these last several games, and I’m comfortable and I think they’re comfortable in that environment as well.’
Ernie Clement was waiting for ‘Mad Max’ Scherzer moment
Toronto’s 41-year-old Max Scherzer got the win in Game 4 and the three-time Cy Young winner looked like his hold self, shouting at Blue Jays manager John Schneider to leave him in the game – much to the delight of third baseman Ernie Clement
‘I’ve seen it on TV just from watching baseball over the last 15 years or whatever. He’s so fired up and wants to be out there and wants to kick your ass,’ Clement told reporters before Game 5. ‘So to be on that side of it, like, I’ve been kind of waiting for that all season, so it was so, so fun to be a part of.
‘I couldn’t help but laugh. It was just so funny because after he comes out, he kind of flips the switch and goes back to being that fun-loving jokester. It’s like he’s got two personalities. It’s hysterical. So I was really happy for him to get that job done.’