Eight outs.

That’s what stood between the 2025 Seattle Mariners and the franchise’s first World Series appearance.

Eight outs to end a 48-year wait.

We all know what happened next, and while that Game 7 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays is going to sting for a while, that’s only because of the way this team grabbed hold of our collective imagination and took us farther than any Mariners team had before.

“The personality of the team this year was resiliency and fight,” says Mariners manager Dan Wilson.

Through injuries and a fairly miserable month of June, this team persevered. In spite of doubts and in the face of uncertainty, this lineup kept swinging, from Julio Rodríguez to Jorge Polanco to the catcher Cal Raleigh, whose backside became a local landmark. The pitching staff kept firing fastballs, whether it was George Kirby, Andrés Muñoz, or Logan Gilbert, who, for some reason, is nicknamed “Walter.”

And then, after picking up Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor, these Mariners got on a roll. They won 17 of 18 games during one truly remarkable stretch in September and earned the sixth playoff berth in franchise history. In the postseason, Seattle stared down Detroit through 15 innings of white-knuckle anxiety to win a decisive Game 5 and reach the American League Championship Series for the fourth time ever.

No, the Mariners did not win the championship. They showed us it was possible, though, bringing the city together in a way we hadn’t seen in years. For weeks, it was all anybody talked about, a collective energy, and a wave of jerseys filling sidewalks, restaurants, and stores. Through laughter and tears, we all chased the dream of victory, and while it didn’t come true (this time), that doesn’t make it any less meaningful for us—or for them.

“This is a very close group,” Wilson says. “Their bond is undeniable. They supported each other, they pushed each other, and they loved each other, and that was a big key to how well they played together each night.”