They'll be sleepless in Seattle after this one.

The Mariners were nine outs away from defeating the Blue Jays on Monday. Nine outs away from winning the American League pennant. In their first trip back to the AL championship series since 2001, they were just nine outs away from clinching a berth to the World Series for the first time in the franchise's 49-year history. They were on the precipice of making dreams come true for millions across the Pacific Northwest, but instead, they induced a nightmare.

The Mariners took a 3–1 lead in Game 7 of the ALCS after solo home runs from Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh and holding the Blue Jays to just one run through six innings. To their misfortunes, they weren't able to keep Toronto down any longer.

George Springer hit a three-run home run for the Blue Jays in the seventh inning, giving them a 4–3 lead. They held the Mariners without another run, with reliever Jeff Hoffman striking out all three Mariners' batters in the ninth inning to secure the win. Seattle was left to fly home from Toronto heartbroken, as their franchise remains the only one in MLB that has never made the World Series.

The Mariners had their chances. Outside of Game 7, they took a 2–0 lead over the Blue Jays to start this series, winning the first two games at Rogers Centre, but couldn't hold on. They dropped four of the last five games of the series, allowing Toronto the opportunity to return to the World Series for the first time in over 30 years.

Despite the crushing defeat, Mariners manager Dan Wilson doesn't want this loss to overshadow their storybook season. Wilson said his message to his team after the game was, "Just to hold up their heads. To understand what kind of a season they had. I know this stinks, there's no question this is gonna sting. The kind of season they had, doing things no team in this organization has done, knocking on the door of a World Series, all that, it's due to how hard they've worked, how hard they've played all season long. All the times they've come back, all the times they've bounced back. It's a special team in there, it's a shame we had to come out on the wrong side of this one."

It definitely was a special season for the Mariners, but rather than finally breaking through and making the World Series, it will simply be another that's remembered for falling short.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mariners' Dan Wilson Reveals Message to Team After Heartbreaking Game 7 Loss to Blue Jays.

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