Jays Watch: Guerrero's magical October leads Toronto to Game 7

Welcome to Jays Watch, where we'll have you covered throughout the Toronto Blue Jays' postseason run. Here are our takeaways from the Blue Jays' 6-2 win over the Seattle Mariners in Sunday's ALCS Game 6.

Guerrero steals the show again

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s been the star of the postseason on every side of the ball.

The Toronto Blue Jays first baseman homered in Game 6 for the sixth time this October - and third over the last four games - but a number of other plays from Sunday deserve to be highlighted.

Guerrero won a Gold Glove in 2022 and is nominated again this year. With Toronto leading 2-0 with one out in the third inning and Cal Raleigh at the plate, Guerrero made a great read on a ground ball to start the 3-6-1 inning-ending double play.

Despite the infield playing back, Guerrero's ability to get to the ball quickly and throw accurately allowed Andrés Giménez to make the turn and get the out at first to prevent the run from scoring.

Guerrero made another excellent play in the seventh inning to plate an insurance run. Taking an aggressive secondary lead, he raced around third and scored after Matt Brash spiked a ball in the dirt that Raleigh then threw away. Guerrero's aggressiveness forced Seattle into multiple mistakes, illustrating how many ways he can influence a game.

"To watch him do what he's doing right now and six homers in the postseason - he's playing great defense, he's running the bases well," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. "This is kind of what you look for from one of the elite players in the game."

Guerrero's fully embracing the ride this October, and the team continues to be fueled by it.

"I'm born ready," Guerrero told Sportsnet's Hazel Mae postgame.

We'll see what he has in store for the final act of the ALCS.

The moment isn't too big for Yesavage

Everyone knows by now about Trey Yesavage's rapid acceleration through the minor leagues this season, but that doesn't mean we should take any of his success for granted.

Coming off a tough start against Seattle in Game 2 in which he allowed five runs over four innings, Yesavage was handed the ball with Toronto's season on the line. The kid who wasn't even added to the 40-man roster until Sept. 15 was starting the franchise's biggest game since before he was born.

At times Sunday, he was dominant. Other times, he walked a tightrope. But in the end, he recorded 17 enormous outs and qualified for his second postseason win - twice the number he earned in the regular season.

Several moments in Game 6 showed how much trust the Blue Jays have in Yesavage, and how much trust he has in himself.

Yesavage retired the first six batters he faced, striking out the side in the second. He ran into trouble in the third, loading the bases for Raleigh. One mistake would have left the Blue Jays chasing the game. Instead, Yesavage leaned on his splitter, and rather than getting a swing and miss, he forced the 60-homer bat to ground into a double play - one that isn't made if the 22-year-old doesn't hustle to cover the bag.

"That situation, especially against Cal, it's kind of like, who else do you want there, you know?" Schneider said.

You can't get higher praise from your skipper.

Yesavage again loaded the bases the following inning after two singles, a wild pitch, and a walk. Still, the Blue Jays had no one warming up. Schneider trusted his youngest player in the biggest moment of the team's season, and the right-hander used his splitter yet again to induce an inning-ending double play off the bat of J.P. Crawford.

Yesavage hadn't recorded a double play in his brief MLB career entering Sunday. He got three in back-to-back-to-back innings.

Yesavage showed a different side of himself in Game 6 and proved he can be trusted in the most important moments. He also demonstrated that he can pitch differently when the situation calls for it. He trusted his defense at times when he could have otherwise become too fixated on trying to strike everyone out.

"I was getting my stuff in the box early, getting ahead of batters and letting my defense work. ... I knew my defense had my back," Yesavage said.

Mariners fail to do the little things

Seattle's looked like a completely different team in its losses this series, and Game 6 featured multiple instances in which the Mariners beat themselves.

Julio Rodríguez misplayed a ball in center to lead off the second inning, handing Daulton Varsho an extra 90 feet. Eugenio Suárez, the Game 5 hero, botched a routine grounder the next play, allowing Ernie Clement to reach first base. If Rodríguez doesn't make the initial error, Clement's ball could have been a double play. Instead, there were runners on when Addison Barger came to the plate, and he drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single.

Seattle's errors weren't limited to the field either. Crawford's baserunning blunder in the third inning prevented him from reaching third base on Leo Rivas' 360-foot single off the right-field wall. The Mariners also grounded into three straight inning-ending double plays.

This is a club that took Games 1 and 2 at the Rogers Centre by doing the little things right. Seattle couldn't execute in those areas in Game 6, and it opened the door for Toronto to extend the series.

"We could have played a maybe cleaner game," Rodríguez said, according to Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. "We definitely set the table a few times, but we couldn't capitalize. And that's part of the game too. But they definitely played a good game."

Not too little or too late for Hoffman

You could argue that Jeff Hoffman was deployed Sunday in the exact situation in which he should have appeared in Game 5, but it was at least good to see Toronto's closer used in a big spot this time around.

Hoffman entered the eighth with a 6-2 lead facing Raleigh, Jorge Polanco, and Josh Naylor. He struck out two and retired the side on 15 pitches. Schneider opted to stretch him another inning, and Hoffman recorded two more strikeouts and a walk before shutting the door. Schneider said he'll be available once again Monday despite throwing 35 pitches. Hoffman went as many innings in Game 6 as he had throughout the ALCS and threw more pitches than he had during his previous two appearances combined.

It's clear Schneider made a mistake going to Brendon Little rather than Hoffman in the same situation in Game 5. Nothing can change that now. At least the manager was willing to use his closer in the eighth inning of an elimination game against the Mariners' biggest bats despite having a four-run lead. And there's a chance those hitters could potentially see him again Monday.

Buckle up for Game 7

The Blue Jays will play their first Game 7 in 40 years. The Mariners will play their first in franchise history.

The winner meets Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Mariners-Blue Jays has been the best series of the postseason, and it fully deserves to go the distance.

"This is what we sign up for," Schneider said. "Whenever you can play for Game 7 to go to the World Series, it sounds kind of cool to say it, you know. But this is why we sacrifice everything. It's why players sacrifice everything. It's special and unique, but you have to look at it as a game."

The decisive meeting will start with Shane Bieber versus George Kirby, but as with any elimination game, things could get weird. We can't wait.