Eight outs from AL pennant, Mariners waste lead and remain only team without a World Series trip

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TORONTO (AP) — Eight outs from their first World Series, the Seattle Mariners let it slip away.

Their 49th season may have been the most heartbreaking.

Eduard Bazardo gave up George Springer's three-run homer in the seventh inning, and the Mariners lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 on Monday night in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

“I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure,” Seattle star Cal Raleigh said. “What we expected was to get to the World Series and win a World Series. That’s what the bar is and the standard is and that’s what we want to hold ourselves accountable to.”

After winning their first AL West title since 2001, the Mariners had high hopes in October. But those World Series aspirations remained unfulfilled.

“Obviously, it hurts,” center fielder Julio Rodríguez said. “That’s also part of the game, too.”

Seattle arrived in Toronto with a 3-2 series lead, needing just one win to bring the World Series to the Pacific Northwest for the first time. The only big league team never to play in the Series never got that victory.

The Mariners never led during a 6-2 loss in Game 6 but they went ahead in the first inning of Game 7 when Rodríguez doubled leading off and scored on Josh Naylor's single.

Rodríguez's fourth postseason homer put Seattle ahead 2-1 in the third and Raleigh added his 65th home run of the year in the fifth, his fifth of the postseason, boosting the advantage to 3-1.

Bryan Woo, who returned Friday from a pectoral strain that had sidelined him for nearly a month, replaced starter George Kirby to begin the fifth.

Woo walked Addison Barger on five pitches leading off the seventh, Isiah Kiner-Falefa grounded a single up the middle and No. 9 batter Andrés Giménez sacrificed.

Mariners manager Dan Wilson brought in Bazardo, who started Springer with an inside sinker, then left another sinker over the plate, knee high.

Springer hit his 23rd career postseason homer.

Wilson said he had no regrets about going with Bazardo over closer Andres Muñoz.

“You make your decisions, and sometimes you have to live and die with it,” Wilson said. “The way Bazardo has thrown the ball all season long, we were comfortable with where we were. It just didn’t go our way.”

Seattle didn't get a hit in the final four innings, and the season ended when Leo Rivas, Dominic Canzone and Rodríguez struck out against Jeff Hoffman in the ninth.

“I know this stings and there’s no question that it’s going to sting,” Wilson said. “It’s a special team in there. It’s a shame that we had to come out on the wrong side of this one.”

A former catcher, Wilson played for Seattle from 1994-2005, reaching the ALCS three times. The Mariners had never gotten past Game 6 — until this season.

“All of us now have had a taste of how close we can get and how good this team can be,” Wilson said. “Once you get that, that’s what you’re shooting for again the next year, and I know that will continue to be the goal.”

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