The Mariners pitching staff slammed the door on the potent Blue Jays offense in Game 1 of ALCS
The Seattle Mariners took the field for its first American League Championship Series game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Coming off a 15-inning Game 5 win against the Detroit Tigers in the American League Divisional Series on Friday, and an off-day of travel which included a flight delay Saturday, it would have been understandable if the Mariners came out unable to keep pace with the Blue Jays offense that entered Sunday averaging 8.5 runs a game in this year's playoffs.
Instead, it was Seattle's pitching staff that made Toronto's offense look sluggish, and the former prevailed 3-1 to take a 1-0 lead in the ALCS.
"Tremendous," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame news conference. "We've talked about just how resilient these guys are and tonight was one of those instances again. Great job all around. Coming back tonight and getting Game 1 is obviously a big momentum shift for us. A lot of work to do, yet."
Seattle scored first in every game of the ALDS against Detroit. On Sunday, it was the Blue Jays that drew first blood in front of their native fans.
Toronto designated hitter George Springer, who Mariners fans remember from his time on the 2017 Houston Astros World Series team, hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning to put the Blue Jays in front 1-0.
Springer's homer was on the first pitch thrown in the game by Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller, who went on to throw 27 pitches in the first inning.
Miller hunkered down and limited the damage to just Springer's home run.
Miller, who made the first postseason start of his career in Game 4 of the ALDS against the Tigers, put together the first playoff quality start of his three-year major league career.
Miller finished the game with three strikeouts, three walks and allowed one earned run on two hits (one home run) in six innings of work. He exited the game having thrown 76 pitches — a less than 10-pitch-per-inning pace when subtracting the 27 he threw in the first.
"I wanted to go deep and give our bullpen a chance and I was able to do that," Miller said in a news conference after the game. "But yeah. First pitch home run, definitely not ideal. Especially on the road. We joke pretty often that first pitch home run doesn't count. We're going with that. Didn't count. ... First inning went pretty long, but I felt like I made some good pitches that inning and had some stuff to build off of going forward, and was able to settle down afterwards."
Before Miller's day was done, Seattle's lineup made sure the former Texas A&M hurler got run support.
Catcher Cal Raleigh, who has some of the best statistical numbers of a non-Blue Jay player at Rogers Centre in the major leagues, hit a solo home run to right field to tie the game 1-1 in the top of the sixth.
"I don't know if it's one thing," Raleigh said in a postgame news conference. "I try to go up there with the same plan, and sometimes it's more coincidence than anything with it being (in Rogers Centre). They've got a really good staff over there. They're tough, their pitchers are really good. Really good ball club. To me, it's just trying to go out there and execute. We know every pitch is important this time of year."
Also in the sixth, second baseman Jorge Polanco hit an RBI single to score center fielder Julio Rodriguez from second. Polanco hit the walk-off single in the team's 3-2 win against the Tigers on Friday. Both Raleigh and Polanco's hits Sunday came with two outs, and the Mariners carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth.
Polanco had another RBI single in the top of the eighth for the eventual final of 3-1.
Miller turned the ball over to relievers Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andres Munoz in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively. The trio of high-leverage arms combined for one strikeout and didn't allow a batter to reach in three collective innings pitched.
Seattle will look to head back to the Pacific Northwest up 2-0 in the ALCS after Game 2 of the series, which is scheduled for 2:03 p.m. PT on Monday at Rogers Centre.
Logan Gilbert will start for the Mariners and Trey Yesavage will start for Toronto.
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