Just another game? Nope. Mariners are embracing being 1 win from World Series

They just had one of the greatest wins in their history. On one of the most dramatic, biggest home runs in their history.

So what did the Mariners do to celebrate Cal Raleigh’s solo home run preceding Eugenio Suarez beating the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 Friday night with a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series?

They packed — for Game 6, in Toronto.

A freight truck backed up to the front door of the clubhouse. The players packed their bags. Equipment guys loaded trunks. It all went into that truck before some fans were done celebrating outside T-Mobile Park Friday night. The Mariners barely had time to compute how they got one more win from their first World Series before that equipment truck drove away and they were on the bus to the airport. They flew to Canada late Friday night. They have an optional, late-afternoon window to work out at Rogers Centre Saturday.

Sunday, just after 5 p.m. Seattle time, the Mariners will play in Toronto in an effort to make their first World Series.

How are they going to come down to even-keeled to play Game 6, after their unforgettable, all-timer rally in Game 5?

“Yeah, I mean, it’s that time of year,” Raleigh, the franchise’s co-cornerstone, said after his 64th home run this year. “Guys are...we’re excited. If you can’t get up for these games, then you probably shouldn’t be here.

“Our guys are up for the challenge. And we have a tough road ahead of us. We know they’re a good ball club. We just have to go in there, play our kind of game, be aggressive. Do what we do, and try to stay in the moment, for the moment.

“So just, really, enjoy it and go out there and try to take care of business.”

There may be a school of thought that “staying in the moment” means the Mariners not looking ahead to or considering what they are on the cusp of achieving. Just approach Game 6 Sunday as another game in baseball’s constant, daily rhythm.

Whatever.

These Mariners know better.

Not only has Seattle never in its 49 years (48 as Mariners, one, in 1969, as Pilots) reached the World Series, this baseball city never before been where they are now: Within one win of making the World Series. They are the last major league team to never play in one.

Instead of ignoring that, these Mariners are embracing it.

“We know what it means. There is no hiding it. It’s reality. We can go to the World Series with one more win,” co-cornerstone Julio Rodriguez said at his locker, with music playing through the clubhouse the same way it was after ugly home losses in Games 3 and 4 Wednesday and Thursday.

“We’ve gotta win the game,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve got to stay pressing, in the moment, and go out there and compete.”

With the score and series tied at 2 in the eighth inning of Game 5 Friday, Suarez re-ignited the Pacific Northwest’s World Series dreams. He took a 99-mph fastball from Toronto’s Seranthony Dominguez the way it was pitched, outside and the other way.

Suarez drove the pitch into the bleachers beyond right field, and into Seattle sports history. It was the grandest of slams.

EUGENIO SUÁREZ CONNECTS AGAIN IN GRAND FASHION

WHAT A GAME IN SEATTLE pic.twitter.com/9BQVmonoum

— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2025

Afterward, he was keeping what the Mariners could do at the top of his mind.

“I just feel so grateful right now and feel so good,” Suarez said, “because we’re going to Toronto with an opportunity in front of us to go to a World Series.“

Logan Gilbert for Game 6?

It’s been customary for Wilson to name his starter for the following game of this series a couple hours before first pitch of that day’s game. But the manager on Friday didn’t say who is starting Game 6.

He probably didn’t have to.

Logan Gilbert is the obvious choice. He hasn’t pitched since he started Game 2 in Toronto Monday. He pitched only three innings against the Blue Jays, allowing them to erase all of the 3-0 lead Rodriguez had given the Mariners with a home run in the first inning at Rogers Centre.

The way Wilson has been removing starting pitchers so early this ALCS, it may matter more that the manager feels he can continue being “aggressive,” his word, with his bullpen and how long his relievers pitch each postseason game.

To that end, Bryan Woo remains an intriguing option out of the bullpen. The All-Star starting pitcher made his first career relief appearance pitching the sixth and seventh innings in Game 5. Coming off pectoral inflammation, he allowed two hits and a run. He only threw 28 pitches in his first game since Sept. 19.

Woo could be option behind Gilbert Sunday in Game 6 following a day of rest Saturday.

“He looked sharp,” Raleigh said after catching Woo. “I was actually, you know, kind of surprised at how sharp he was for not pitching so long. I thought he executed pretty well (Friday).”

Gilbert allowed five hits in his three innings in Game 2. One of the three runs he allowed was unearned. He walked one and struck out two in only 58 pitches before the Mariners pulled away for a 10-3 win after he left the game.

So he’s rested, with an extra day’s rest beyond normal, even. What Gilbert said in Toronto after Game 2 still applies returning to Toronto for Game 6: “You can’t let up. We aren’t there yet.”

But they’re thinking about it.

“(To) be in this position right now and have something special in front of us, obviously, it’s very good for me,” Suarez said, his two young daughters at his side, “and for our organization, too.”