George Springer blasted a three-run home run to end the Toronto Blue Jays’ 32-year wait to return to the World Series, crushing the Seattle Mariners’ dreams of a first ever appearance in Major League Baseball’s championship finale.
Springer’s seventh-inning 381-foot rocket into left field propelled the Blue Jays to a 4-3 game seven victory after the Mariners had taken a 3-1 lead at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
The Blue Jays will now face the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in a best-of-seven battle for the Fall Classic, with game one set for Toronto on Friday (Saturday AEDT).
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It will be the Blue Jays first appearance in the World Series since the Canadian franchise won back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993.
“I’m just so happy for our team, our city, our country,” an elated Springer told Fox Sports television following the win. “This is such an unbelievable moment.”
Springer had been forced to exit game five in Seattle last week after being hit on the kneecap but said he had fought through the pain barrier to help Toronto clinch victory in Monday’s decider.
“It doesn’t matter,” Springer said of his sore knee. “I owe it to these fans, this city and this country to give them my all. So I’ll take it.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider saluted Springer’s uncanny knack of rising to the moment when called upon. Springer has now scored 23 post-season home runs, the third most in history behind Manny Ramirez (29) and Jose Altuve (27).
“There’s probably not another person on planet Earth that I want up in that moment other than George Springer with his October magic,” Schneider said.
The win also completed a remarkable turnaround for the Blue Jays, who had stumbled into a 0-2 hole after dropping the first two games of the American League Championship Series at home to the Mariners.
“What this group has accomplished so far is amazing,” Schneider said.
“This is so well-earned.”
The win now sets up a cross-border US-Canada baseball battle between the Blue Jays and the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers.
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Toronto owner Edward Rogers is determined his team can clinch a third title.
“This is Canada’s team,” Rogers said.
“This team has the depth and the character and the vision and they’re going to go all the way.”
The defeat was cruel on Seattle, who had dared to dream of the franchise’s first ever trip to the World Series after doggedly pulling into a 3-1 lead with the finish line in sight in the seventh inning.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson applauded his team’s season.
“I know this stings and there’s no question that it’s going to sting, but the kind of season they had, doing things that no team in this organization has ever done, and knocking on the door of a World Series, all that, you know, it’s due to how hard they’ve worked, how hard they’ve played all season long, all the times they have come back, all the times they have bounced back,” Wilson said.
“It’s a special team. It’s a shame that we had to come out on the wrong side of this one.” Seattle had got off to a solid start, with Josh Naylor’s single to right field bringing home Julio Rodriguez for a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Toronto hit back immediately in the bottom of the inning, however, with centerfielder Daulton’s single sending Springer scampering across home plate for 1-1.
A third inning home run from centerfielder Rodriguez followed by another towering homer from catcher Cal Raleigh in the fifth inning put the Mariners 3-1 up.
But Springer – a member of the Houston Astros 2017 World Series-winning team – stepped up in the seventh inning to pounce on a loose pitch by Mariners reliever Eduard Bazardo and catapult Toronto into the lead and into the Fall Classic.
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