The Toronto Blue Jays have triumphed over the Seattle Mariners with a 4-3 victory in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, earning their first World Series berth since 1993. Awaiting them in the showdown for the Commissioner’s Trophy are the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Initially trailing 3-1 in the decisive contest by the seventh inning, the Blue Jays turned the tide when George Springer blasted a three-run homer, propelling them into the lead. The Mariners, unable to recover, failed to get a single runner on base in the final two innings.

Springer’s clutch home run marks a historic moment, as it became the first game-winning homer in a Game 7 where the team was behind by multiple runs in the seventh inning or later.

With this victory, the Blue Jays aim to capture their third championship title in the team’s history. The Dodgers, who dominated the Milwaukee Brewers in a clean sweep to clinch the National League title, are determined to defend their crown and secure a ninth World Series championship.

The Blue Jays will host Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers in Friday night’s opener as Los Angeles tries to become the first repeat winner in a quarter century.

Toronto hosts the opener because it finished the regular season with 94 wins, one more than the Dodgers. 

The Blue Jays were playing in a Game 7 for the first time since losing at home to Kansas City in the 1985 ALCS. 

Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. arrived at the stadium wearing a Maple Leafs hockey jersey with Auston Matthews’ name and number. Fortunately for Guerrero, his team did not follow in Matthews’ footsteps, as the star forward is 0-6 in Game 7s with Toronto during his 10 seasons in the NHL. 

Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez each hit a solo home run for the Mariners in the team’s first Game 7 but Seattle failed to reach its first World Series, leaving the heartbroken Mariners as the only major league team without a pennant.

Addison Barger walked to begin the seventh and Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a single. Seattle right-hander Bryan Woo was removed after Andrés Giménez advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt, and Springer greeted Eduard Bazardo with his fourth homer of this postseason, a 381-foot drive to left field that got the sellout crowd of 44,770 roaring.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, have overrun opponents during the postseason. Ohtani is starring at the plate and on the mound, a performance that would be deemed CGI if not witnessed by thousands in person.

“Sometimes you’ve got to check yourself and touch him to make sure he’s not just made of steel,” teammate Freddie Freeman said.

But before his three-homer at the plate and 10-strikeouts, six-scoreless innings mound show Friday night, Ohtani’s bat had been slumping.

He’s hitting .220 with five homers and nine RBIs in the postseason and is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in a pair of pitching starts, striking out 19 and walking four in 12 innings.

Los Angeles is the first defending champion to reach the World Series since the 2009 Philadelphia Phillies, who lost to the New York Yankees in six games. No team has won consecutive titles since the Yankees took three in a row from 1998-2000. The gap is the longest in baseball history, topping the previous high between the 1977-78 Yankees and the 1992-93 Blue Jays.