The 2025 Seattle Mariners are now closer to the ultimate goal than any other team in franchise history. One more win will earn their first ever pennant and their first trip to the World Series.
We don’t know what will happen next. But how they got here? Well, that was in the most Mariners-y way possible.
Mariners come back to beat Blue Jays 6-2, take 3-2 ALCS lead
Game 5 of the ALCS was, in so many ways, the perfect microcosm for this Mariners team and this postseason in particular.
This year has (hopefully) taught us all plenty of lessons. Three of them ring especially true today.
1. Talent wins… eventually.
The Mariners are the most talented, deepest team in the American League. This has been true since July 31 when they acquired Eugenio Suárez, a week after trading for Josh Naylor.
They may not be perfect, but they have the best and most complete roster in the AL. Their lineup goes at least six deep on any night, their starting rotation matches up with anyone’s, and the impact portion of their bullpen is superb. That allowed them to advance beyond the Rangers, Astros, Red Sox, Yankees and Tigers. And I believe it has shown up so far against the Blue Jays.
The Jays may have the better offense, but their bullpen is suspect, and that played a major role in Seattle’s Game 5 win, with five of the six runs coming after Toronto manager John Schneider pulled starting pitcher Kevin Gausman.
The best player in the series is Cal Raleigh, and he showed it with his towering game-tying home run in the eighth inning Friday.
BIG DUMPER, BIG SWING
LET’S GOOOOOOOOO‼️ pic.twitter.com/ptRT6jGb06
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) October 18, 2025
And those trade deadline acquisitions? I don’t need to tell you how important they were. Naylor’s nifty double play, early single and especially his eighth-inning walk (off a lefty!) were all crucial moments. But none of them came close to Geno’s mammoth blast.
Every angle of the biggest home run in @Mariners history 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Lg4eYKAJFH
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2025
Depending on what happens next, that grand slam will be remembered forever. And it is the direct result of trading for a player who hit 49 home runs in the regular season. Sure, he might be streaky, and the previous few games (er, weeks, er, months) weren’t exactly what you thought you’d get. But just like Jorge Polanco getting a second chance to redeem himself this season, Geno did all that and more in this one game.
Suárez salami gives Mariners 3-2 lead in ALCS over Blue Jays
2. It doesn’t matter how it “feels.”
Baseball is a great sport for many reasons. It intrigues us with roster decisions in the winter, signals the start of spring, “passes the time” in the summer, and then brings out all of our emotions in the fall. It has so many moments and decisions embedded in each and every game that are perfect for postgame analysis and second guesses. I have always believed its many complications and daily nature make it the most fun sport to discuss.
But it’s not predictive. At least the emotions that come with it aren’t.
This year’s team has proven that again and again. Our feelings when the Mariners “settled” for Polanco in the winter did not predict his comeback season. Our feelings when they were swept out of San Francisco, Arizona, New York and Tampa did not predict what happened next. In fact, after they were swept in San Francisco, they won six of seven. After Arizona, they won three straight and four of five. The sweep in the Bronx was followed by five straight wins (over Detroit and Houston, no less), and after Tampa it was 11 straight and 18 of 19 to clinch the AL West and No. 2 seed.
The players may love and respect the fans, but thankfully, they don’t give a hoot about their feelings!
Because it may have felt over when we knew they would have to face Tarik Skubal a second time in the ALDS. Or after dropping two straight blowouts at home to the Jays. But this game changes each time someone throws a pitch. And once Gausman gave way to the ‘pen, it swung drastically in Seattle’s favor.
3. Play your game and win your way.
Dan Wilson, in my view, managed his best game of the series in Game 5. He may have gotten grief from some of the more traditional baseball fans after lifting Bryce Miller in the fifth inning, but I thought he handled it perfectly.
He made it through the game without using any non-leverage arm, counting on Matt Brash, Bryan Woo, Gabe Speier and Andrés Muñoz to gobble up those 15 remaining outs. Only the guy who’s usually a starter, Woo, threw more than one inning or more than 20 pitches. And they allowed a total of two runs. That is more than sufficient work against an offense that had scored 21 runs the previous two days!
It was, again in my view, a better and more modern approach than we saw early in the postseason. He managed this one to win a crucial battle and it worked.
The team also stuck to its strengths offensively. It may drive some people crazy that they strike out too often, don’t manage enough hits and don’t play small ball. But they take walks and hit home runs.
All six runs they scored in this game came via the long ball. All six. They struck out more often than Toronto did, but it was more than negated by the six walks (plus a hit by pitch), three of which scored on the grand slam.
If baseball history has taught us anything, it is that Game Sixes can be epic. Certainly 1975, 1986 and 2011 produced three of the most intense and interesting games ever played, and all of them are known as “Game 6” by their respective fan bases.
I don’t know what we have in store for us on Sunday night in Toronto, but if it is anything like what we saw on Friday in Seattle, we better all buckle up!
Seattle Mariners ALCS coverage
• Stacy Rost: Mariners’ trade for Suárez did more than make them better
• Mariners’ defense shines with web gems in pivotal ALCS Game 5 win
• Blue Jays drop slugger from roster for rest of series
• What They Said: Mariners not backing down against Blue Jays
• Drayer: Why Seattle Mariners are using Bryan Woo out of the bullpen
