Dramatic 3-run homer by George Springer saves Jays’ season late in the 7th inning
Geoff Nixon · CBC News · Posted: Oct 20, 2025 2:37 PM PDT | Last Updated: October 21
The Toronto Blue Jays staged a dramatic, late-game comeback to beat the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night, allowing Canada’s only Major League Baseball team to return to the World Series for the first time in more than 30 years.
Toronto slugger George Springer hit a game-changing, three-run homer late in the seventh inning to put the Jays ahead. Seattle was not able to catch up with Toronto after the season-saving blast.
“There’s probably not another person on planet Earth that I want up other than George Springer and his October magic,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider, remarking on the home run that put the team over the top in Monday’s game.
Seattle had taken an early 1-0 lead in the first inning, which Toronto then matched at the bottom of that same inning. But the Mariners later took a 2-1 lead, and then a 3-1 lead — with each bump coming from solo home runs from Seattle sluggers.
But Springer’s seventh-inning blast put Seattle behind Toronto, and the Blue Jays were on their way to winning the ALCS.
‘The job’s not finished’
Blue Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was named as the MVP of the ALCS, but was already looking ahead to what Toronto must do next.
“The job’s not finished. We got four more to go,” Guerrero said after the Game 7 win, referring to the seven-game World Series, where Toronto will face the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Toronto’s victory in the best-of-seven ALCS was all the more remarkable because the Jays started out 0-2 in the series and had to claw their way to achieving four wins against the Mariners.
Tough loss for Seattle
The Mariners’ season ends immediately, a bitter loss for the team and its fans. Seattle has never made it to the World Series and waited 24 years to reach the ALCS.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson was asked about what message he had for his players in the aftermath of the loss.
“Just to hold up their heads and to understand what kind of a season they’ve had,” said Wilson, who was part of the Mariners team that got to the ALCS in 2001.
“It’s a shame that we had to come out on the wrong side of this one.”
Toronto last played in the World Series during the 1990s, when the Jays won back-to-back championships — first in 1992 against the Atlanta Braves, and then again in 1993 against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Many members of the current Blue Jays squad — such as 22-year-old rookie phenom Trey Yesavage — were not alive when Toronto last made it to the Fall Classic.
The same goes for Game 7 starter Shane Bieber, who was born in 1995.
