Eight outs away from their first-ever American League pennant, the Mariners squandered a 3-1 Game 7 lead after leading the series both 2-0 and 3-2. Fans won’t soon forget.
At the end of the day, especially for the 99.9% of us that simply tune into sporting events as opposed to play them, it’s simply just a game.
That isn’t to minimize the cultural impact and meaningfulness of sports – it’s a constant distraction and joy away from the stresses that may exist in one’s personal or work life. Something most fans developed a love for as children and never let it fade away.
For fans in Seattle, Monday night was supposed to be an evening celebrated by the city for generations to come – after nearly 50 years of existing as a franchise, the Mariners were finally on the doorstep of the World Series.
These past few years have been a true whirlwind for Mariners fans, who just three years ago saw the team snap an unbelievable 21-year postseason drought only to get swept by the Houston Astros in the ALDS after beating these same Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Wild Card series.
After two narrow postseason misses in 2023 and 2024, this year felt like a season of destiny for Mariners fans. Take your pick at the intangibles, this team had it all. From a switch-hitting catcher in Cal Raleigh who hit a record-setting 60 home runs to reuniting with Eugenio Suárez and picking up Josh Naylor at the trade deadline en route to toppling the Astros to win the division, it finally felt like things were breaking in Seattle’s favor.
That feeling only intensified after a historic victory in Game 5 of the ALDS, a 15th-inning walk-off triumph over the Detroit Tigers in front of a starved Seattle fanbase. The M’s felt particularly unstoppable after opening the ALCS with two victories in Toronto, giving Seattle a 2-0 lead while heading home with three home games on deck.
Toronto promptly responded with blowout victories in Seattle in Games 3 and 4, but Game 5 once again looked to prove to Mariners fans that 2025 was different, that it truly was a year of destiny.
Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, it was none other than Cal Raleigh to tie the game with a solo shot. Keeping the inning going with a rally that loaded the bases, Eugenio Suárez cashed in on his big Seattle moment with a go-ahead grand slam that put Seattle within a win of the Fall Classic.
The closest they have ever been, and the closest they will have ever gotten for at least one more year.
After getting ran out of the building in Game 6, the Mariners squandered a late Game 7 lead and remain without both a World Series championship and American League pennant.
Early on during Monday’s game, John Smoltz remarked that while Game 7s can be incredibly fun for players, they are never fun for managers – who must make decisions that can impact not just the outcome of a single game, but the trajectory of a franchise for a generation.
While I don’t necessarily think that’s the case for a Mariners team loaded with young talent across the board, there are simply no guarantees when it comes to having opportunities to win it all – simply getting back to this point for Seattle, or any franchise for that matter, is always a tall task.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson, who is in his first full year of managing the club, was heavily criticized by fans after last night’s game for opting to put in Eduard Bazardo, who was already making his ninth appearance of the postseason, as opposed to closer Andrés Muñoz when facing George Springer with runners on second and third with just one out.
With an open base, Bazardo pitched to proven playoff hero George Springer, who catapulted a 1-0 offering into the left field stands for a three-run home run that will likely surpass the fame of José Bautista’s iconic bat flip in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS.
Of course, there were several other choices Wilson could have made here, though none would have guaranteed the Mariners would have escaped a rally kickstarted by a bottom of the Toronto order that tormented Seattle throughout the series.
While I certainly think you should trust your best reliever in a do-or-die game, a closer entering a game in the seventh inning in a dirty inning is much different than starting off a clean ninth inning to try to close out a game – though I think Muñoz should have been put in the game, I don’t think it’s as historically awful of a decision as some are presenting it as.
Of course, Bazardo could have intentionally walked Springer to set up a bases loaded, one-out do-or-die meeting with Nathan Lukes, who has grounded into 13 double plays this season between the regular season and postseason. With that said, a failure to get a double play against Lukes results in facing Vladimir Guerrero Jr., exemplifying the difficulties the Blue Jays lineup presents opposing managers with.
Though a different decision could have been made, Wilson was damned if he did and didn’t. Ultimately, your star pitcher working out of relief cannot allow the 7 and 8 hitters to reach to lead off the inning, which may have sunk the Mariners regardless of what managerial decision was made.
Still, fans will be wondering “what if?” to themselves for years, if not decades when relitigating this game. As a 29-year-old Cubs fan, watching last night’s game brought back childhood memories of heartbreak during the 2003 NLCS, a series where different managerial decisions could have resulted in a much better outcome for the Cubs.
Rays fans look back to Kevin Cash yanking Blake Snell in the middle of a stellar performance in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series – Orioles fans remember Cy Young Award candidate Zack Britton not even getting a chance to pitch in the 2016 AL Wild Card Game against the Blue Jays. I myself wish Dusty Baker would have gone to Matt Clement out of relief in Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS as I watched Brad Penny and Josh Beckett slam the door on the North Siders out of the bullpen.
Mariners fans likely can’t and won’t want to think about it right now, but a seven-game series is ultimately that – seven games. Just as I look back on an awful offensive performance for the Cubs in Game 5 of the 2003 NLCS, blown leads at home in Game 1 and of course, the Bartman incident and botched double play ball of Game 6, Mariners fans have plenty more places to look than just the shortcomings of Game 7.
Ultimately, this was a club that fell flat twice at home when they were given an opportunity to sweep the series or at least win it in five games while not having to leave Seattle again for the series. A three-error performance in what was also a clinch opportunity in Game 6 may even sting more than this Game 7 loss in retrospect.
The most difficult part about a loss like this for the Mariners and their fans is that there isn’t a clear answer as to what would get this team over the hump and into the World Series. Sure, a 90-72 record may be a bit on the underwhelming side compared to most world champions, but it’s also clear that that really doesn’t matter once October comes around.
The Mariners appeared to be proving that early on this October – that additions at the deadline and late-season play mean more than what the overall record at the end of the season is, as long as it’s enough to get the club into the postseason.
For a franchise that has served as the home of some of the sport’s greatest players of all-time, they had also developed a reputation for frugality and a conservative approach, never appearing to go all-in at the trade deadline for a particular team – until this year.
While there were some inconsistencies in the regular season, Seattle maintained one of the strongest rotations in the league filled with arms that are capable of dominating on any given night. The additions of Suárez and Naylor turned an already effective lineup into a truly scary one. They pulled all the strings and went all-in on this club to win it all. And they came up short.
The Mariners are a young team with an incredible amount of talent on every corner of the roster – in all likelihood, they will remain very competitive for the next few years. But take it from this Cubs fan that a seemingly endless future rarely ever turns out to be so.
After the 2016 World Series, myself and many other fans across the baseball world were convinced the Cubs would be the NL’s team to beat for the foreseeable future – it turns out that 2016 was the unquestionable peak of a team that failed to live up to expectations outside of that season. What felt like one of at least a handful of opportunities in 2016 turned out to be the only chance.
This loss for Seattle is exceptionally painful, but only the future will determine how painful this loss is.
Red Sox fans still roll their eyes in frustration when remembering Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, as manage Grady Little left Pedro Martínez in the game for far too long as the BoSox relinquished an eighth-inning lead and went on to lose the game. Yet with the team winning it all the very next season, Little’s decision is remembered more as an unfortunate blunder that doomed one year’s team as opposed to a colossal collapse that doomed the future of a franchise.
Looking for an example of the latter? Make your way to the Steel City and ask Pittsburgh Pirates fans about Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS – holding a 2-0 lead in the ninth inning, in the third consecutive season of making the NLCS, finally hoping to break through to the World Series – and they couldn’t quite close the deal.
From there, a franchise led by Bobby Bonilla and Barry Bonds that was the cream of the crop in the NL in the early 1990’s turned into a bottom-dweller that wouldn’t see the postseason again until my senior year of high school.
It will be up to the 2026 Mariners and beyond to determine how painful the 2025 loss will be to Seattle fans for coming generations. Was this year’s Seattle team the prequel to the group that finally breaks through and sends the Emerald City into a frenzy a half-century in the making? Or were the 2025 Mariners simply the peak of another era of competitive Seattle baseball that came and went without anything to show for it?
While it may be the most painful, agonizing part of being a fan, there’s only one thing we can do – wait.
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