The Mariners are a win from the World Series. But really, so much more.

DerekJohnson · 9:56AM

By Tim Booth Seattle Times staff reporter

TORONTO — In a game defined by numbers, what they mean, how they’re analyzed, dissected down into percentages and decimal points that help tell the story, these are now the two sitting directly in front of the Seattle Mariners.

48 and 27.

Forty-eight seasons to date of going without, while every other franchise currently in Major League Baseball has at some point reveled in the unhinged joy of reaching the stage that ultimately defines success in the game.

And 27. As in 27 outs to go for a berth in the World Series.

“We know what it means. There’s no kind of hiding it, or things like that. Just the reality. We can go to the World Series with one more win. But we got to win the game,” M’s center fielder Julio Rodríguez said. “We got to win the game. We got to stay present in the moment and go out there and compete.”

AL championship series Mariners 3, Blue Jays 2

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh hits a solo home run in the eighth inning to tie the game. The Toronto Blue Jays played the Seattle Mariners in Game 5 of the ALCS Friday, October. 17, 2025 at T-Mobile Park, in Seattle, WA.

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If Game 5 of the American League Championship Series was the most important game to date in franchise history, well, welcome to Game 6 on Sunday night at Rogers Centre. The Mariners will take a 3-2 series lead into a situation the franchise has never faced.

In 1995 and 2000 and again in 2001, the three previous times the M’s played in the ALCS, they never went into an elimination game with the chance of ousting their opponent. In 1995 and 2000, the M’s went into Game 6 down 3-2 in the series and lost both times. In 2001, the series never reached a sixth game as the M’s were sent home by the Yankees in five.

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That background is what makes Sunday night fascinating.

Fans celebrate the Seattle Mariners defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 in the of ALCS Game 5 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Friday, October 17, 2025. (Ivy Ceballo / The Seattle Times)

Win, and 48 previous seasons of frustration, angst, anger and always falling short will be gone. The moniker of being the only team in baseball to have never won a pennant and never reach the World Series will be no more.

But the meaning will go far beyond the banner that would eventually hang above right field at T-Mobile Park.

It would be for those who were there in the Kingdome for Diego Seguí’s first pitch in 1977, and were still hanging on the final pitch from Andrés Muñoz that ended Game 5 against Toronto.

It would be for the fans who during the gloomy, sparsely attended days inside the Kingdome didn’t need to carry a radio with them to hear Dave Niehaus call the game, ate marginal Kingdogs and heard Bill Scott — aka Bill the Beerman — plying his trade selling drinks up and down the aisle.

It would be for the kids who grew up with Niehaus and Rick Rizzs as their narrators of Mariners baseball and are now the adults taking their kids to the park.

August 22, 1977: Robert Schober, of Mercer Island, explained some of the finer points of baseball to his son, Willie, 8, during a Seattle Mariners game in the Kingdome. Willie had come prepared to field any foul balls that might come his way. (Dale Blindheim / The Seattle Times)

August 22, 1977: Robert Schober, of Mercer Island, explained some of the finer points of baseball to his son, Willie, 8, during a Seattle Mariners game in the Kingdome. Willie had come prepared to field... (Dale Blindheim / The Seattle Times)More

It would be for the USS Mariner — both the boat in center field at the Kingdome and the blog. The players who ripped up knees and elbows on the AstroTurf carpet of the Kingdome and never experienced a winning season.

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The stars who came and left for elsewhere, those who came, left and came back again and those who only called Seattle home.

It would be for 1995 and the team that saved baseball in Seattle and for 2001 and the team that was built for the greatest regular season in American League history but not for chopping down the Yankees in the playoffs.

And it would be for themselves, this current group that has brought the M’s to this point and doesn’t seem interested in running away from the history of the franchise or the associated baggage along for the ride.

“This is what you live for. This is why you play. This is, like I’ve been saying, the coolest thing you can do,” M’s reliever Matt Brash said. “I love these moments.”

If all that sounds dramatic, well, welcome to Mariners baseball. It’s been a long time waiting for the chance to be one game away from the World Series. And the reaction inside of T-Mobile Park to the M’s eighth-inning rally to win Game 5 seemed to understand being at this inflection point.

“Just can’t say enough about the fans here in Seattle, just how much they support us, how they come out, how they turn out, how they give us the energy we need. Another phenomenal day from the people here in Seattle. It makes you emotional just thinking about that and just how loud it was at that moment,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “Talking to a lot of people who have been around here since the 2001 days, they don’t remember a time that it was this loud before. So just an incredible moment at T-Mobile Park, and you can’t say enough about the support we’ve received from these fans this year.”

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Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh pumps his fist walking off the field after the inning ending double play in the fourth Friday at T-Mobile Park, in Seattle. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)

Of course, the Blue Jays will have something to say about how this story all plays out. It could end up being their story after winning Games 3 and 4 in Seattle and headed back home where they were far and away the best team in the American League this season. The advantage of having the best record in the AL is getting the final say of playing Games 6 and if necessary 7 at home.

“As cool of an environment it is to play here, I know that our fans are going to be ready for us to get home on Sunday,” Toronto manager John Schneider said after Game 5. “I’ve said it all along. It’s a seven-game series, and we did our job coming in here taking two out of three, and we’re going to go home and we’re going to definitely be ready to play.”

It’s long been debated what the general fan reaction would be if the Mariners ever did get to the World Series. Would it be greater than the SuperSonics in 1979, the first major pro sports team to call Seattle home and win a title? Would it top the first Seahawks trip to the Super Bowl after the 2005 season or the first Lombardi Trophy after winning the title in February 2014?

We’re at the cusp of finding out.

“We’re nine long innings from where we want to be,” said Game 6 starter Logan Gilbert.

Twenty-seven outs to go.

Tim Booth: Tim Booth is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times, where he covers the Kraken and the ongoing story surrounding possible NBA expansion and helps with coverage of the Seahawks and Mariners.