Mariners and Blue Jays ALCS proving the old adage that defence wins championships

There is one game remaining in the 2025 ALCS and with Game 7 on tap for Monday evening, both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners will need to play their best game of the season. Throughout the series we have seen great pitching, mixed in with timely hitting and some spectacular defensive plays.

One of the main reasons though, that Game 7 is now in play, is due to Game 6 boiling down to one team executing in the field in the most necessary situations while the other team couldn't do the same.

Mariners and Blue Jays ALCS proving the old adage that defence wins championships

In Game 4 it was the Blue Jays defence, and the Mariners poor baserunning decisions which led to some key outs en route to an 8-2 Blue Jays win to even the series at 2-2. After the Mariners came up with some big plays in Game 5, including a key 1-3 double play by Cal Raleigh, Seattle's defence was a let down in Game 6.

The Mariners didn't exactly throw Game 6 away but they didn't help themselves with a couple of sloppy plays that directly led to Toronto adding runs on the board, and allowing them to once again even the series. It started in the bottom of the second when Daulton Varsho hit a single to centre field, which was misplayed by Julio Rodriguez, allowing Varsho to move up to second base.

The very next batter, Ernie Clement smashed a ball at third baseman Eugenio Suárez who bobbled the ball and was late getting the throw to first, allowing Clement to reach on the error. Addison Barger then came to the plate and singled to drive in the games first run. Isiah Kiner-Falfea was the next batter and he hit a chopper to third that Suárez had to come in on, trying to bare hand the ball, but he couldn't come up with it.

It put the Blue Jays ahead 2-0 and allowed Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage to go to work with an early lead. In the bottom of the seventh, Raleigh couldn't come up with a throw down to third that led to another Blue Jays run. After a ball in the dirt skipped away from him, he tried to catch Vladimir Guerrero Jr. taking off from second to third, but Raleigh's throw ended up in left field.

Conversely, the Blue Jays defence came up with big plays time and time again in Game 6. In the top of the third, the Mariners had the bases loaded with one out and Raleigh was at the dish. A hit likely would have tied the game, but the Blue Jays turned a 3-6-1 double play to keep their 2-0 lead intact.

In the top of the fourth, the bases were once again loaded with one out against Yesavage, this time with J.P. Crawford at the plate. Crawford hit a sharp one-hop grounder directly at the second basemen Kiner-Falefa. IKF flipped it to the bag for one, and Andrés Giménez threw it to first for the twin killing.

In the fifth, it was a Julio Rodriguez groundout into a 6-4-3 double play that ended the inning, making it three consecutive innings in which the Mariners grounded into double plays to end the frame.

With Game 7 set for Monday night, the Blue Jays will take their MLB best defence and look to back up Shane Bieber, who gets the ball for the winner-take-all game at Rogers Centre.