By IAN HARRISON
TORONTO (AP) — George Springer put Toronto ahead with a three-run homer in the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays advanced to the World Series for the first time since 1993 by beating the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night.
It was the first go-ahead homer in Game 7 history when a team trailed by multiple runs in the seventh inning or later.
The Blue Jays will host Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 on Friday night when the World Series comes to Canada for the third time. The defending champion Dodgers swept Milwaukee in the NLCS.
The Blue Jays were playing in a Game 7 for the first time since losing at home to Kansas City in the 1985 ALCS.
Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez each hit a solo home run for the Mariners in the team’s first Game 7 but Seattle failed to reach its first World Series, leaving the heartbroken Mariners as the only major league team without a pennant.
Addison Barger walked to begin the seventh and Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a single. Seattle right-hander Bryan Woo of Alameda was removed after Andrés Giménez advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt, and Springer greeted Eduard Bazardo with his fourth homer of this postseason, a 381-foot drive to left field that got the sellout crowd of 44,770 roaring.
Toronto went 54-27 at home in the regular season and 4-2 at home in the AL playoffs.
Making his first bullpen appearance since Game 5 of the 2021 Division Series, Kevin Gausman pitched one inning of scoreless relief, working around three walks, to earn the win for Toronto.
Fellow starter Chris Bassitt pitched a perfect eighth and Jeff Hoffman finished for his second save this postseason.
Rodríguez opened the game with a double and scored on a one-out single by Josh Naylor. Daulton Varsho tied it with an RBI single off George Kirby in the bottom half before Rodríguez restored the lead for Seattle with a leadoff homer in the third.
Raleigh, who led the majors with 60 homers in the regular season, made it 3-1 with a leadoff homer against Louis Varland in the fifth.
Raleigh has 10 home runs in 15 career games at Rogers Centre, three of them in the postseason. He also homered at Toronto in Game 1 of a 2022 Wild Card Series and Game 1 of this year’s ALCS.
Naylor was called out to end the first after umpires ruled he interfered with Ernie Clement’s relay to first base on a double play by jumping into the throw and deflecting it.
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Kirby allowed one run and four hits in four innings. He walked one and struck out three.
Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber permitted two runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. arrived at the stadium wearing a Maple Leafs hockey jersey with Auston Matthews’ name and number. The star forward is 0-6 in Game 7s with Toronto during his 10 seasons in the NHL.
