The Mariners, unlike the Yankees, figured out how to stop Vladdy in Game 1

The American League Championship series was not off to the start the Toronto Blue Jays wanted after falling 3-1 to the Seattle Mariners Sunday night. Despite George Springer's first-pitch home run, the bats went cold and couldn't deliver.

One of the more notable bats that went quiet was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. After completely decimating the New York Yankees with three home runs and a .523 average, Vladdy went 0-for-4 at the plate. It may be early, but it's a good sign for Seattle to ease the bat of one of Toronto's biggest giants.

Breaking balls and off-speed pitches get to the best of Vladdy

Seattle figured the best way to handle Vladdy was to prioritize off-speed pitches, and it tended to work.

In the 15 pitches Guerrero Jr. saw at the plate Sunday night, 12 of them were a mixture of breaking balls and off-speed pitches. Vladdy mostly saw the sinker and let three go by, two of those resulting in strikes. The rest saw a combination of sweepers, splitters, and sliders, most of which Vladdy took, and those that he made contact with would end up being in play for the defense to handle.

In the ALDS, Vladdy saw 31 fastballs, most in the heart of the zone, which he would bat .429, and used that to his advantage to help eliminate the Yankees. The combination of those four off-speed pitches Vladdy saw tonight in the ALDS saw an average of .250 (per Baseball Savant).

In his postgame scrum, Vladdy reminded reporters it was simply "one game," and expects the Blue Jays to bounce back.

Although the rest of the team also suffered a similar fate to Guerrero Jr. with the quiet bats, starting pitcher Kevin Gausman wanted to insist the loss was on him in his postgame comments. "I tried to do my job as much as I can. I gave up a home run and a walk. To that point, I was really throwing the ball well and had the game right there. This one's on me."

Game 2 of the ALCS goes down Monday at 5:03 pm EST with Trey Yesavage on the mound for the Blue Jays.