ALCS: Miller recovers, Polanco delivers Seattle’s Game 1 win over Blue Jays, 3-1
Bryce Miller could have caved. He was surrounded by a rowdy sellout crowd in enemy territory, starting Game 1 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) at Rogers Centre in Toronto. His first pitch was destroyed for a solo homer by Blue Jays designated hitter George Springer, confronted with a deficit before breaking a sweat. All while the American League’s best lineup loomed, momentum stolen and hope deflated.
Toronto’s Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger drew first-inning walks. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Daulton Varsho barreled loud flyouts to Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez, an unfriendly hint that a high-powered lineup had found its timing. Catcher Cal Raleigh paused play for an early mound visit as Mariners manager Dan Wilson readied the bullpen.
But Miller never crumbled. He escaped that opening frame with just one run of damage, needing 27 pitches to do it, before the defining moment of his baseball career: Six stellar, gutsy, crucial innings that kept the Mariners one swing away.
“I threw 55 pitches (Wednesday) in Detroit, so I still felt fresh,” Miller said at the Rogers Centre podium. “Coming off of a 15-inning game in Seattle two nights ago, I wanted to get deep and give our bullpen a chance (to rest). I was able to do that.
“We also joke pretty often that a first-pitch home run doesn’t count, so we’re going with that,” he smiled. “Didn’t count.
“The first inning went pretty long, but I felt like I made some good pitches that inning and had some stuff to build off of moving forward. I was able to settle down afterwards.”
A steady diet of Miller’s trademark four-seamer with a dash of sinkers, splitters, and sliders propelled the right-hander to six innings of one-run baseball in Seattle’s first ALCS appearance since 2001. From the second inning on, Miller retired 13 Blue Jays in a row with his classic Texas strut from the mound to the dugout. It was more than a bounce-back. It was a renaissance.
“The plan was to continue to attack,” Miller said, “and keep ‘em there. That’s all they get.
“I knew we’d come around and put some runs on the board.”
When Miller kept Seattle’s ship afloat, Raleigh and Jorge Polanco steered it to the promised land. Raleigh launched a game-tying solo home run to right field, and the folk-hero Polanco delivered a pair of RBI singles in the sixth and eighth innings — enough for the Mariners to outlast the Blue Jays, 3-1, in Game 1 of the ALCS on Sunday night.
Keeping track of the countdown? The Mariners are three wins away from their first-ever American League pennant and World Series berth. In the words of Raleigh, they’re seven wins from winning “the whole (expletive) thing.”
“He was mixing and locating really well,” Raleigh said of his starter. “You just trust in your stuff. They’re a really good ballclub and they’re really good with bat-to-ball. Just trying to get ground balls, pop flies, and not trying to strike everybody out.”
The Mariners were exhausted. They were less than 48 hours removed from their 15-inning win over the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 of the ALDS. They fatigued their bullpen, using three starters and each of their highest-leverage relievers. And they spent their Saturday traveling nearly 2,500 miles across national borders — making Miller’s dominance on just three days of rest all the more critical.
The Blue Jays, meanwhile, hadn’t played since Wednesday night, eliminating their division-rival New York Yankees in four ALDS games. They spent three nights in the comfort of their own homes and bedrooms. Game 1 starter Kevin Gausman was plenty rested, and looked like it.
Wilson planned to give Miller four innings of work in this pivotal ALCS Game 1. He expected less when a messy first inning put his starter on the ropes, but got more when Miller turned on the jets.
Gausman navigated a similarly-shaky first inning before entering cruise control, silencing the Mariners offense long enough for the Blue Jays to emerge.
Miller never let them.
The 27-year-old needed 27 pitches to finish the first inning. He needed just 49 pitches to finish the next five. Through six strong, Miller surrendered two hits and one earned run with three walks and three strikeouts. After Springer’s first-pitch homer, Seattle’s starter was nearly unhittable.
“The job Bryce Miller did tonight was phenomenal,” Wilson said. “After that first inning, he went into a different gear. You saw him getting ahead using all of his stuff. The fastball kept coming out really good. It was one of those situations where you knew the bullpen was ready to bail him out at any time, but (Bryce) kept coming out and throwing the ball so well.
“To give us six strong innings, especially coming out of that first inning, the ability he had tonight to close the door was phenomenal.”
With two outs in the sixth, Raleigh unleashed the swing an entire city waited for. Gausman’s well-located, 2-2 splitter was no match for ‘Big Dumper,’ whose 420-foot solo shot silenced a confident Toronto crowd. Seattle 1, Toronto 1.
Raleigh has tormented this team for years, a known one-sided feud that began with a two-run blast in Game 1 of the 2022 AL Wild Card series in Toronto and hasn’t ended. Blue Jays fans are still wondering if it ever will.
Raleigh knew Sunday’s boos were coming, but “tuned out” the noise like MVP candidates can. Easy to say, harder to do.
“(Gausman’s) really tough,” Raleigh said. “He’s one of the best pitchers in the game. Obviously, he’s got two elite pitches with the heater and the splitter. They both play really well with each other.
“I just choked up and wasn’t trying to do too much. I was trying to get bat-on-ball, and really just trying to put something in play, maybe find a hole. I didn’t want to punch out again, and I was just able to put good wood on it.”
Rodriguez followed with a two-out walk, chasing Gausman out of a promising start. He took second base when Toronto reliever Brendon Little spiked a wild pitch, then scored when Polanco again delivered the heroics — a go-ahead, RBI single to left that plated Rodriguez in the franchise’s biggest game in 24 years.
Randy Arozarena drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, stealing both second and third base before another Polanco single scored Seattle’s third run.
Mariners closer Andres Munoz notched a 1-2-3 ninth inning that slammed the door. Seattle retired 23 of the last 24 hitters they faced, a rare all-around shutdown of a Toronto team built by its bats.
“We knew we had our hands full today,” Raleigh said. “Just come out and try to keep executing.”
Wilson announced that right-hander Logan Gilbert will start Monday’s ALCS Game 2 for a 2:03 p.m. PDT first pitch at Rogers Centre.
This story was originally published October 12, 2025 at 8:00 PM.
