The race for the pennant in MLB’s American League will have its decisive chapter on Monday at Rogers Centre, the baseball temple of the Blue Jays. The Canadian franchise is playing for its first World Series berth since 1993 against the Mariners, who have never played in a Fall Classic. One way or another, the seventh game between the two will put an end to a curse and define the Dodgers’ challenger in the title race.
So far, Toronto and Seattle have traded blows and have shown the ability to silence rival fans. The Mariners opened with two wins at the Rogers Centre, while the Blue Jays leveled the series at T-Mobile Park, two unlikely venues when the duel began.
The power of Seattle and the depth of Toronto have marked the destinies of a showdown that will be decided in a do-or-die game, in which the starters will be George Kirby and Shane Bieber, respectively. The right-handers will cross paths again after the third game, in which Kirby was heavily punished and Bieber dominated at the level of his best years in MLB.
However, as is often the case in these sudden-death clashes, managers will not give much leeway and at the slightest slip they will give way to the bullpen, especially now that they have starters available who can walk several innings. Toronto, for example, will have Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt as additional options to their classic relievers, while Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo will also be waiting for an opportunity for the Mariners.
Will the Rogers Centre factor decide the outcome?
The Mariners have never faced a Game 7 in the playoffs, so they will have to break the ice if they are to advance to the first World Series in their history. To make matters worse, their test will be on the road.
The Blue Jays, on the other hand, the first and only time they played the seventh game of a postseason series was in the fight for the American League pennant in 1985. On that occasion, they could not take advantage of the fact that they were playing at home in the old Exhibition Stadium and fell 6-2 to the Royals, who advanced and were crowned in the Fall Classic.
This is just one example that playing as a host does not guarantee anything in a seventh postseason game. In Championship Series, for example, while the overall balance (11-8) favors the hosts, none of them have been able to come out on top since 2017, when the Astros defeated the Yankees with a memorable shutout by Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers Jr.
Including the World Series, the home team has won just one of the last eight Game 7s in the playoffs, a trend the Blue Jays face the daunting task of reversing. If we go to the history of all postseason matchups set for seven games, the record right now is 29 wins for the hosts and 29 for the visitors in seventh games. It couldn’t be a closer fight.
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