SEATTLE — Logan Gilbert didn’t want to get greedy.
The Mariners had the bases loaded in a 2-2 game in the bottom of the eighth inning of ALCS Game 5 against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night. The right-hander was standing in the dugout as a nervous spectator, just like the 46,758 fans surrounding him in the seats and concourses at T-Mobile Park.
Minutes earlier, Cal Raleigh had rejuvenated the home crowd with a roof-scraping, stadium-rattling, game-tying solo home run to left field after seven agonizing innings of minimal offensive output. The rally continued after Raleigh’s blast, with Jorge Polanco and Josh Naylor drawing walks against Toronto reliever Brendon Little and Randy Arozarena wearing a 98-mph fastball off the elbow from Seranthony Domínguez for a hit-by-pitch to load the bases.
Up to the plate walked Eugenio Suárez, the lovable slugger who returned to Seattle in a serendipitous trade-deadline swap, still seeking his signature moment in this postseason.
By the time Suárez settled in for his showdown against Domínguez, Gilbert had been joined in the dugout by rotation-mate Bryce Miller, who started Game 5 on the mound, tossing four solid innings to set an encouraging tone for Seattle. Miller was in the clubhouse handling his post-outing arm care during Raleigh’s home run, but he rushed out to get a better view as the eighth-inning rally started to build.
“I just ran outside, and next thing you know, bases are loaded, and Geno’s up,” Miller said afterward.
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Domínguez attacked Suárez with fastballs and sweepers, with Suárez fouling off one of each to stay alive in the high-stakes at-bat. In a 2-2 count, Gilbert turned to Miller with a humble plea.
“Logan actually told me, ‘Hey, all I’m asking for right here is a home run — nothing too much,’” Miller recounted.
With the crowd eagerly and desperately awaiting a resolution that could break the tie, Domínguez unleashed a 98.5-mph fastball over the heart of the plate. Suárez delivered his thunderous, right-handed cut that has sent so many baseballs over fences during the course of his 12-year career.
“And next pitch,” Miller said, “home run.”
Suárez connected with precision, sending Domínguez’s heater soaring toward the right-field seats. He exited the batter’s box calmly and started walking toward first base while holding his bat with two hands, patiently observing the trajectory of the most important batted ball of his life.
Three seconds later, that ball crash-landed into the crowd for a series-altering grand slam and a 6-2 lead that the Mariners would not relinquish.
After Raleigh’s solo shot had taken the volume in the venue to ear-splitting heights, Suárez’s grand slam achieved seemingly supersonic levels. And with that, Gilbert’s wish had been granted.
“It started as a request,” he told Yahoo Sports postgame. “But we can say that I called it.”
As Suárez spent his well-earned time rounding the bases, several teammates spilled out of the dugout, unable to contain their excitement about what their beloved teammate had just done. For all Suárez brings to the table as a player, his unwavering positivity and steady leadership rooted in an overabundance of good vibes make him nearly everybody’s favorite teammate, someone whose success is celebrated tenfold because of his impact on the entire roster.
That singular clubhouse presence, which Seattle was familiar with from Suárez’s time with the team in 2022 and ‘23, combined with the massive right-handed power he showcased in Game 5 is what made him such an obvious target for Seattle at the trade deadline. And though Suárez had gone through some considerably cold stretches since returning to the Mariners, the veteran third baseman remained predictably upbeat and continued to work hard, with the belief that his time in October would come.
“I think everybody was thinking what could happen, but the chances of it actually happening in that moment is probably not super high,” Gilbert said. “And then, of course, it happens. Geno’s been so clutch, and so many home runs, so if anybody was going to do it, I feel like it’s him.”
“He’s done that for 10 years — that same exact swing,” catcher Mitch Garver said.
It was a swing that not only gave the Mariners the lead but also single-handedly transformed the tenor of a series that had been decidedly in Toronto’s favor since the action shifted to Seattle for Game 3. For the majority of the 25 innings played at T-Mobile Park before the Mariners’ eighth-inning breakthrough, the good vibes Suárez so passionately preaches were absolutely nowhere to be found.
The Mariners had returned home with a 2-0 lead in the series having flatly dominated the Blue Jays on their home turf, setting the stage for the possibility of clinching the franchise’s first trip to the World Series in front of a fan base that had waited nearly a half-century for such a moment. But Toronto arrived in Seattle intent on reversing the tide and followed through with downright dominant victories in Games 3 and 4. And for the first seven innings of Game 5, a similar story was being written, putting the Mariners in danger of dropping all three home games and letting a golden opportunity turn into an embarrassing and season-threatening series deficit.
For the third straight night, the Mariners had opened the scoring with a home run, this time on a Suárez solo shot in the second inning. But once again, the bats went ice-cold after that initial blast, allowing Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman to settle in and a relentless Toronto lineup to scratch across a couple of runs and pull ahead 2-1.
Toronto’s seizing of the lead was a particular gut punch for Mariners fans, considering who was on the mound when it occurred: All-Star starter Bryan Woo, making his postseason debut at long last as he builds back up from the right pectoral injury that kept him off the ALDS roster. Woo surrendered the double and single that gave Toronto a 2-1 lead in the sixth.
But unlike the previous two nights, when the Blue Jays’ offense exploded to put the game out of reach, just one run was the difference as the later innings of Game 5 arrived — a deficit that could be eliminated with one swing. And for as unproductive as the Mariners’ lineup had been, it still featured multiple hitters capable of sending one out of the yard when needed. Sure enough, the MVP candidate who just spent the summer smashing home run records and the veteran slugger who has been sending souvenirs into seats for over a decade accessed their power at the perfect time, producing two of the most memorable long balls in the history of the Mariners franchise.
“I have a good amount of beautiful moments in my career, but today is something else,” a beaming Suárez said postgame as he sat at the podium with his daughters, Nicolle and Melanie.
“Hitting that grand slam and helping my team win games in the postseason, in a big game here in front of our fans … They have been waiting for a long time, and myself, too. I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole career.”
Said Raleigh: “The fans and the stadium, they were waiting 26 innings for something like that. Obviously, it didn’t deliver the first two games. But when those moments happen, they just exploded.”
Thanks to those two titanic swings from Raleigh and Suárez — and an efficient 1-2-3 ninth thrown by closer Andrés Muñoz, who was finally given a lead at home to lock down — what was trending toward one of the most disappointing three days in the history of Seattle sports transformed into one inning of unfettered jubilation that will be remembered in the Pacific Northwest for generations to come.
By securing the victory in Game 5, the Mariners have arrived at an entirely unfamiliar juncture for the franchise. Just one win separates Seattle from its first World Series berth and the erasure of a longstanding, not-so-fun fact regarding the franchise’s status as the only big-league ballclub to never appear in the Fall Classic.
The team will now travel back to Toronto, where Game 6 on Sunday represents its first of two chances to punch a ticket to the unexplored final stage of baseball’s October tournament.
“They came here last night for this type of game, and I’ve been waiting for this,” Suárez said. “I just feel so grateful right now and feel so good because we’re going to Toronto with an opportunity in front of us to go to a World Series.”
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