Eugenio Suárez hit a go-ahead grand slam after Cal Raleigh’s tying drive in a five-run eighth inning, giving the Seattle Mariners a 6-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday and a 3-2 lead in the American League Championship Series.

Suárez also homered in the second inning for Seattle’s first run. The Mariners became the first home team to win in the series and moved within a victory of the first World Series trip for a franchise that started play in 1977.

Game 6 is at Toronto on Sunday night.

Raleigh, a switch-hitting catcher who led the major leagues with 60 home runs during the regular season, was hitting right-handed for the first time in the series when he led off the eighth by pulling a 2-0 changeup from loser Brendon Little.

The 348-foot drive rose 155 feet above the field on a high arc and had a 6.7-second hang time before it dropped over the left field wall 348 feet from the plate and tied the score 2-2.

Jorge Polanco and Josh Naylor walked, and Seranthony Domínguez relieved and hit Randy Arozarena with a pitch.

Suárez fouled off a 2-2 fastball, then hit an opposite-field drive to right, and the ball landed several rows into the seats for his fourth slam this season. Suárez, who had put Seattle ahead in the second against Kevin Gausman, entered the game in a 6-for-50 slump.

Seattle’s Bryce Miller was pitching shutout ball when he was removed after allowing Addison Barger’s leadoff single in the fifth, and George Springer hit an RBI double off Matt Brash.

Springer left in the seventh when he was hit on the right kneecap by a 95.6 mph sinker from Bryan Woo.

Pitching for the first time since Sept. 19 after recovering from pectoral tightness, Woo allowed Ernie Clement’s go-ahead single in the sixth.

Toronto wasted many chances, going 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

Up next

Rookie RHP Trey Yesavage, who started Game 2 of both the AL Division Series, will start for the Blue Jays in Game 6. The Mariners scored five runs off the 22-year-old on Monday.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/17/mariners-win-first-world-series/