Raleigh, Polanco, and Miller Come up Big as Mariners Notch Efficient Win Over Blue Jays in ALCS Game 1

Jorge Polanco played the hero on Friday night, ending the epic Division Series Game 5 with an RBI single in the 15th inning off the Tigers’ Tommy Kahnle. Two nights later, in the American League Championship Series opener in Toronto, Polanco added to his October highlight reel with a pair of late-inning RBI singles against Blue Jays relievers, the first of which gave Seattle the lead. The switch-hitting second baseman wasn’t the only Mariner who came up big, as Bryce Miller tossed six strong innings on three days of rest, Cal Raleigh clubbed a game-tying solo homer, and three relievers turned in perfect innings as the Mariners took Game 1 in Toronto, 3-1.

In marked contrast to the four-hour and 58-minute Division Series finale that allowed Seattle to advance, this was a comparatively concise and fast-paced game, completed in two hours and 48 minutes. After throwing 209 pitches to the Tigers on Friday night, the Mariners mercifully needed just an even 100 pitches to dispatch the Blue Jays while giving up just two hits.

For as compelling a matchup as an ALCS pitting the two 1977 expansion teams — one seeking its first World Series berth in 32 years, the other its first-ever pennant ever — the pairing of Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman against Miller appeared to be a mismatch based on their respective arcs. Coming off a strong regular season and a stellar Division Series Game 1 start against the Yankees, and with seven days of rest under his belt, Gausman appeared to have quite the advantage on Miller, who scuffled this year due to injuries, took an early exit in his Division Series Game 4 start against the Tigers, and started on Sunday only because ALDS Game 2 starter Luis Castillo and Game 3 starter Logan Gilbert were both called upon in relief during the extra innings of Game 5.

After allowing just one run in 5 2/3 innings against the Yankees, Gausman nearly allowed one in the first against the Mariners. Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez both hit one-out singles, with the Big Dumper hustling to third on the latter. Polanco then hit a weak chopper toward third baseman Addison Barger, who was drawn in. He threw to catcher Alejandro Kirk in time to beat Raleigh; the replay suggested the Mariners might have had a case if they’d challenged the call. Josh Naylor got ahead 2-0, then connected on a splitter for a lazy fly ball to center field, beginning a stretch where Gausman cruised. From the point where he retired Naylor until the Mariners had two outs in the top of the sixth, the 34-year-righty retired 15 straight hitters, five via strikeouts.

As for Miller, after a nice little breakout in 2024, he was the weakest link in the Seattle rotation this season due in part to bouts of elbow inflammation, which sent him to the injured list twice for a total of 92 days. If his 5.68 ERA and 5.17 FIP weren’t bad enough to begin with, he posted a 6.79 ERA and 6.09 FIP in 59 2/3 innings from June 5 — two starts before he was first sidelined — to the end of the season. His stuff wasn’t as sharp as in 2024, and his strikeout rate plummeted from 24.3% to 18.9%, as batters chased his four-seamer, splitter, and slider substantially less often. His gaudy 5.68 ERA was the second-highest regular season mark among the 43 pitchers who started a playoff game in either the Wild Card or Division Series rounds, better only than Aaron Nola’s 6.01.

Miller threw just 56 pitches over 4 1/3 innings against the Tigers in Game 4 of the Division Series, holding Detroit scoreless for the first four frames before allowing a leadoff single to Spencer Torkelson and a one-out RBI double to Dillon Dingler, who soon came around to score. At the outset of this one, he didn’t figure to throw many pitches, and it didn’t take long to ponder the possibility that he wouldn’t make it out of the first inning, as he retired just one of the first four Blue Jays he faced. His first pitch on Sunday night, a 97.3-mph fastball to George Springer, was a well-placed fastball on the outer edge of the one, but Springer reached out and hammered it to right field for a solo home run. Nathan Lukes then battled Miller for a 12-pitch walk, one that was interrupted when he fouled a ball off his right knee, which caused a delay for a few minutes. Barger followed with another walk, putting Miller on the ropes.

Raleigh then visited Miller on the mound, and whatever he said, it flipped a switch for the 27-year-old righty. He retired both Kirk and Daulton Varsho on fly balls, with Rodríguez chasing down the latter’s 102.5-mph drive. All told, Miller threw 27 pitches in the inning.

Building on his escape from the first, however, Miller found a groove. He needed just 32 pitches to complete the next four innings, with a one-out single in the second inning by Anthony Santander the only hit he allowed in that span. On that one, Santander hit a high first-pitch four-seamer from Miller for a 100-mph liner to right field, where Victor Robles — who must have been caught off-guard, as he had his defensive alignment card between his teeth (!) — ran the ball down after it bounced twice, only for it to squirt away as Santander advanced to second on the error. Nonetheless, the Blue Jays stranded him.

Riding his streak of 15 straight retired (16 straight including the out at the plate), Gausman got Raleigh to a 2-2 count with two outs in the sixth, and tried to throw a splitter down and in. He left the pitch too far over the plate, and Raleigh pulverized it, sending it 420 feet to right center field for a game-tying homer, his second of the postseason after an astounding 60 during the regular season.

After Gausman walked Rodríguez on five pitches, his night was over. He’d thrown 76 pitches, getting 10 swings and misses, with five coming against his splitter, three on his four-seamer (which averaged 95.4 mph), and two with his slider. The Mariners did manage eight hard-hit balls of 95 mph or higher against him — none harder than Raleigh’s 108-mph home run — but five of those were on the ground.

Gausman’s outing might have looked better. Blue Jays manager John Schneider could have called upon a right-handed reliever to keep Polanco batting from what had been his weaker side this year; he hit .254/.321/.481 (127 wRC+) against righties compared to a sizzling .305/.345/.543 (150 wRC+) against lefties. That said, on a career basis Polanco has been a better hitter against righties (116 wRC+) than lefties (110 wRC+), and two of the next three hitters (Naylor and Dominic Canzone) were lefties as well. Schneider played the larger sample size by calling upon lefty Brendon Little, who sent Rodríguez to second on a wild pitch as the count ran full. Two pitches later, Polanco scorched a single to left field — at 110.7 mph, it was the fastest off the bat for either team all night — plating Rodríguez to give the Mariners a 2-1 lead. Little recovered to strike out Naylor and end the threat.

Mariners manager Dan Wilson sent Miller out for the sixth. He needed just six pitches to retire Myles Straw, who had taken over for Lukes in the fourth, and Vladimir Guererro Jr., but then issued a two-out, four-pitch walk to Barger. It seemed as though Miller’s night was done after another mound visit, but he stayed in to retire Kirk on a fly ball.

The Mariners had a chance to expand their lead in the seventh after Eugenio Suárez missed a solo home run by a couple of inches and had to settle for a loud double off the right-center field wall against Louis Varland. He advance to third on a Canzone grounder but got no further. However, the Mariners did push across another run in the eighth, when Seranthony Domínguez issued a leadoff walk to Randy Arozarena, who after Raleigh struck out stole second and third base, the latter without a throw. Rodríguez worked a walk, and then Polanco, back to batting left-handed, drove in Arozarena with a single to right field.

Polanco is just 6-for-26 this postseason, but five of those hits have been massive: two solo homers off Tarik Skubal in their ALDS Game 2 win, plus the winning hit on Friday, and plus these two. That’s already the stuff of what legends are made.

Miller departed after six innings, having matched Gausman’s pitch count of 76. Where he got just one whiff in the first two innings, he finished the night with eight: three apiece on his four-seamer and splitter, and one apiece on his sinker and slider. He walked three and struck out three but allowed just the two hits. It was the first time since April 29 that he allowed fewer than two runs in a start. Under the circumstances, it was a brilliant outing.

After he departed, the Mariners bullpen made short work of the Blue Jays, with Gabe Speier, Matt Brash, and Andrés Muñoz each needing just eight pitches to set the side down in order; they combined to get just two whiffs and strike out just one hitter (Brash punched out Springer in the eighth) but allowed just two hard-hit balls, both routine fly outs. Between Miller and the relievers, Guerrero, Varsho and Ernie Clement — three hitters who went a combined 25-for-47 against the Yankees — were held hitless in 10 plate appearances.

Before the series opened, I wondered if the Mariners would experience any kind of hangover effect after their marathon victory. I spent a bit of time researching on Baseball Reference, looking at the eight previous teams that had advanced to the next round of the postseason after taking a winner-take-all game in extra innings.

Including the Mariners, the teams that won those epics went 7-2 in the opener of their next series. So far they’re 4-4 in those series overall; it doesn’t appear as though they uniformly suffered any kind of hangover effect.

Anyway, now the Mariners have effectively seized home field advantage from the Blue Jays. They’ll call on Gilbert to face rookie Trey Yesavage on Monday with a chance to send them back to Seattle with a sizable advantage.