Springer's homer sends Blue Jays into World Series with 4-3 win over Mariners in Game 7 of ALCS

TORONTO — George Springer put Toronto ahead with a three-run homer in the seventh inning as the Blue Jays advanced to the World Series for the first time since 1993 by beating the Seattle Mariners, 4-3, in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night.

ALCS MVP Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays will host NLCS MVP Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 on Friday night when the World Series comes to Canada for the third time.

“The job’s not finished. We got four more to go,” Guerrero said.

Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez each hit a solo home run in the first postseason Game 7 in the Mariners’ 49-year history, but Seattle squandered a 3-1 lead in the seventh and fell eight outs short of advancing.

Addison Barger walked to begin the seventh, Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled on an 0-and-2 pitch and Seattle’s Bryan Woo was removed after No. 9 batter Andres Gimenez advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt.

Thanks to the bunt, Barger and Kiner-Falefa didn’t have to trot as far to reach the plate. On Eduard Bazardo’s second pitch, Springer launched his fourth homer of this postseason, a 381-foot drive to leftfield that sent the sellout crowd of 44,770 into a roaring, pulsating frenzy.

“It’s so fitting,” Jays manager John Schneider said. “Bottom of our order gets it done again. There’s probably not another person on planet Earth that I want up other than George Springer and his October magic.”

It was the 23rd career postseason homer for Springer, the 2017 World Series MVP with Houston, tying Kyle Schwarber for third place. Manny Ramirez holds the MLB record with 29.

It was the first go-ahead homer in Game 7 history when a team trailed by multiple runs in the seventh inning or later.

“So happy for our team, our fans, our city, our country,” Springer said.

Entering the top of the ninth, the Mariners needed to get one of their first three batters on base to bring Raleigh — who had hit 65 home runs in 2025, including five in this postseason, and who has 10 home runs in 15 career games at Rogers Centre — to the plate. That didn’t happen, but there was plenty of drama.

Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman struck out Leo Rivas on a 3-and-2 pitch, Dominic Canzone on a 2-and-2 pitch and Rodriguez — who already had homered and doubled in the game — on a 3-and-2 pitch to end it.

AL East champion Toronto tied the Yankees for the best record in the American League at 94-68, won the division title because of a tiebreaker and eliminated the Yankees in the ALDS, but Yankees fans can take some solace in this: Toronto’s victory put 64-year-old bench coach Don Mattingly in the World Series for the first time in an MLB career that began in 1982.

“I think it’s an inspiration for 41 million people in Canada, from coast to coast to coast,” Blue Jays chairman Edward Rogers said. “This is Canada’s team.”

After outscoring the Blue Jays 13-4 and taking a 2-0 ALCS lead on the road, the Mariners — the only MLB team without a pennant — appeared headed for their first World Series appearance. But despite returning home for three games, they dropped four of the final five.

“I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure,” Raleigh said. “What we expected was to get to the World Series and win a World Series. That’s what the bar is and the standard is and that’s what we want to hold ourselves accountable to.”

Toronto became the fourth team to lose the first two games in a best-of-seven postseason series at home and rebound to win. The others were the 1985 Royals, the 1986 Mets and the 1996 Yankees, all in the World Series.

“There’s no question that it’s going to sting,” manager Dan Wilson said. “It’s a special team in there. It’s a shame that we had to come out on the wrong side of this one.”

Rodriguez opened the game with a double and scored on a one-out single by Josh Naylor. Daulton Varsho tied it with an RBI single off George Kirby in the bottom half before Rodriguez gave Seattle a 2-1 lead with a leadoff homer in the third. Raleigh, who led MLB with 60 homers in the regular season, made it 3-1 in the fifth with a leadoff homer against Louis Varland.

Notes & quotes: Guerrero arrived at the stadium wearing a Maple Leafs hockey jersey with Auston Matthews’ name and number. In his 10 NHL seasons, the star forward is 0-6 in Game 7s.