MLB Baseball

2025-10-12 - Seattle Mariners at Toronto Blue Jays

A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown

Seattle Mariners @ Toronto Blue Jays
United States : MLB Playoff American League Championship Series Game 1
Sunday 12th October 2025 - Scheduled 8:03pm
1:03am (British Time)

Preview

The Major League Baseball Playoffs have regularly thrown up plenty of drama and the Divisional Round Series between the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers could not have ended more dramatically. A Game 5 decider was needed to separate the teams, but it wasn't until the bottom of the FIFTEENTH Inning when the Seattle Mariners finally forced the winning run over Home Plate and returned to the American League Championship Series for the first time in almost twenty-five years.

Now they will aim to end a record that no Seattle fan wants to hear.

The Mariners have never made it through to the World Series, never mind actually winning it all, and they are the only Major League club that have never played in the World Series. Trades were made to end that run, and the Mariners are going to be happy to be alive after battling through a tough, competitive Divisional Round.

The Championship Series is going to be played in a best of seven setting, but Game 1 is going to be very tough for Seattle. They played on Friday and the Mariners had to not only use the majority of the bullpen arms, but they also had Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo come out to try and secure the victory, which leaves them vulnerable with a day of rest between games.

It will be Bryce Miller who gets the call for Game 1 of the Championship Series and the Mariners will know that they need the starter to get through a lot of Innings with little backup out of the bullpen. The best of seven setting does make things a little less urgent than in the last Round, while Miller will have been happy with his own performance in the Divisional Round where he held the Detroit Tigers to two runs into the Fifth Inning.

That outing was the best that Bryce Miller has had for a month, but there has to be some concern with the inconsistent performances he produced for much of the regular season. One of the poorer starts was made against the Toronto Blue Jays when Miller was knocked around for seven runs in 5 Innings thrown and picked up the decision loss.

All eyes will be on the Seattle Mariners and how they manage the recovery from the epic win over the Tigers.

For the Toronto Blue Jays, the focus will have been on this Championship Series for a few days after beating American League East rivals New York Yankees in four games. They are now hoping to end a wait of over thirty years since the Blue Jays not only last played in the World Series, but when they won the second of consecutive Championships.

Toronto will begin this Championship Series by handing the ball to Kevin Gausman who had a strong regular season and who was one out away from recording 6 Innings against the Yankees in the Divisional Round. He allowed just a single run in his time on the mound and Kevin Gausman picked up the decision win, while he did the same in a regular season start against the Seattle Mariners.

In that start, Kevin Gausman gave up three runs into the 6th Inning and the Blue Jays will also have a rested bullpen ready to be deployed.

These two teams met six times in the regular season and it was the Toronto Blue Jays who won four times.

However, the Mariners took two of three games played in this ballpark.

Prediction

This American League Championship Series is going to be a good one, but the Toronto Blue Jays have a big edge in Game 1.

The Seattle Mariners have a bullpen that has been severely taxed and just a day of rest between games and that mean Bryce Miller has to work through more difficulties than would usually be the case.

He has been knocked around by the Blue Jays in the regular season and Kevin Gausman can set the foundation for a home win.

Unlike the Mariners, Toronto should have a bullpen ready to be deployed and they can open this Series with a victory.

With the expected fatigue in the arms in the Seattle bullpen, the Toronto batters should have a clear edge and you could make the case for any of them to hit a Home Run.

Unsurprisingly, the oddsmakers are aware of the potential issues for the Mariners in Game 1 and so the odds for a Toronto batter to hit a Home Run are plenty short.

George Springer (4.25) may be the best player to back having had a Home Run against Bryce Miller in the regular season, while asking both Ernie Clement and JP Crawford to have a Hit in this contest is priced at a 2.80 double.