TORONTO — Bryce Miller overcame a shaky first inning and gave the tired Seattle Mariners the start they needed in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.
Miller pitched six sharp innings, Jorge Polanco hit a go-ahead single in the sixth, and the second-seeded Mariners beat the top-seeded Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 Sunday night as they returned to the ALCS for the first time in 24 years.
“The year, personally, didn’t go how I had planned and how I had hoped for,” Miller said, “but we’re in the ALCS, and I got to go out there and set the tone. I felt great.”
Seattle slugger Cal Raleigh added a tying solo home run, his second homer of the postseason after leading the major leagues this year with 60 in the regular season.
“That was a big lift,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said of Raleigh’s drive in a two-run sixth.
George Springer homered on the first pitch from Miller, who then escaped a two-on jam in a 27-pitch first inning.
Anthony Santander singled in the second for Toronto’s only other hit, and Seattle pitchers retired 23 of Toronto’s final 24 batters. Miller, Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz combined to throw just 100 pitches less than 48 hours after the Mariners needed 209 pitches to outlast the sixth-seeded Detroit Tigers in 15 innings.
“The job Bryce Miller did tonight was phenomenal,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “After that first inning, he went into a different gear. You saw him getting ahead, using all his stuff.”
Miller, the winner, struck out three batters and walked three in six innings, throwing 76 pitches. The three relievers each had eight-pitch, 1-2-3 innings, with Muñoz getting the save.
Raleigh tied the score in the sixth with his ninth homer in 14 games at Rogers Centre. Kevin Gausman had held batters to 0-for-16 on splitters in the postseason before Raleigh’s homer.
“I was trying to get bat on ball, really just trying to put something in play,” Raleigh — wearing a T-shirt with the words: “JOB’S NOT FINISHED” — said of his shot. “I didn’t want to punch out again.”
Polanco hit a go-ahead single later in the inning and added an RBI single in the eighth.
“He’s been huge from both sides of the plate,” Raleigh said .
AL West Division champion Seattle traveled to AL East winner Toronto on Saturday after a 3-2 home victory over the Tigers on Friday to win their AL Division Series, the longest winner-take-all game in Major League Baseball history.
Seattle, the only current MLB team to never appear in a World Series, held Toronto to two hits after the Blue Jays had 50 hits and 34 runs in their four-game ALDS against the fourth-seeded New York Yankees.
“We’re a really good offense,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Today it just didn’t work out.”
Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 9-for-17 with three homers and nine RBIs against the Yankees but was 0-for-4 with three groundouts Sunday.
“This is going to be a hard-fought series, man,” Schneider said. “These guys will be ready for it.”
Game of the best-of-seven series is Monday afternoon.
Springer’s 21st postseason home run broke a tie with former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, moving him into sole possession of fifth place on the career list.
Raleigh’s homer was his fourth in 15 at-bats against Gausman, who took the loss.
“Up to that point, I’d been throwing the ball really well and had the game right there,” Gausman said. “This one’s on me.”
Gausman allowed two runs and three hits in 5 2/3 innings.
“Great hitters capitalize on mistakes,” Schneider said. “That split from Kev just kind of leaked back over the middle a little bit.”
Raleigh hit a one-out single off Gausman in the first and advanced to third on Julio Rodríguez’s base hit but was thrown out at the plate by third baseman Addison Barger on Polanco’s grounder.
Polanco, who had the game-ending hit Friday, singled against Brendon Little to drive in Rodríguez, who had chased Gausman with a two-out walk.
Polanco added another RBI single against Seranthony Domínguez.
Eugenio Suárez doubled off the top of the right-field wall against Louis Varland in the seventh. The 395-foot drive would have been a homer in 15 of 30 MLB ballparks, including Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.
Toronto outfielder Nathan Lukes left in the fourth inning, having bruised his right knee when he fouled a pitch off it in the first inning. Schneider said X-rays were negative and that Lukes might return Monday.
Both teams plan to start right-handers in Game 2, with Toronto giving the ball to rookie Trey Yesavage and Seattle countering with Logan Gilbert.
In his fourth MLB appearance and first postseason start, Yesavage set a Blue Jays postseason record by striking out 11 batters in 5 1/3 hitless innings against the Yankees in Game 2 of their ALDS on Oct. 4.
Gilbert will start for the Mariners two days after throwing 34 pitches in two innings of relief.