Mariners limp toward Game 7 after shooting themselves in the foot in ALCS Game 6

For the Seattle Mariners, what was true on Friday night remains true on Sunday night. They are still just one win away from the World Series, and the fact that they can say that at all is an exciting first for franchise history.

And honestly, it might as well be a mantra right now. Because while the Mariners did take their shot at getting that oh-so-precious one win on Sunday, they never really came close to getting it as they suffered a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

If anything, they actively kicked their shot away.

Mariners fans will have nightmares of errors and double plays after ALCS Game 6

For those of us who are sharing the Mariners' perspective in all this, it is frankly difficult to say which was harder to behold in Game 6.

On the one hand, there are the three errors that helped lead to three Blue Jays runs. Bobbles by Julio Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez in the second inning aided two baserunners who both ended up scoring, while Cal Raleigh's throw down the left field line in the seventh inning led to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. plating Toronto's sixth and final run of the night.

On the other, there are the three double plays that got Trey Yesavage out of trouble in back-to-back-to-back innings. The first two were especially gut-wrenching, with Raleigh and J.P. Crawford bouncing into inning-enders with one out and the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings, respectively.

We would call this the Mariners' dumbest loss of the season, except we already went to that well when describing how they lost Game 4. It was a series of absurd mental mistakes that brought that nightmare to life, whereas this latest nightmare was a case of the Mariners giving a very good Blue Jays team as much slack as they could.

Bright sides? There are some, such as Eduard Bazardo relieving Logan Gilbert with two scoreless innings and Josh Naylor, Randy Arozarena and Suárez coming through with five hits and two runs batted in from the middle of the lineup.

The only ones that matter, however, are the ones that have ramifications for Game 7 on Monday. Dan Wilson was at least able to preserve the arms of George Kirby — who will start on Monday — and Luis Castillo, not to mention Bryan Woo, Gabe Speier and Andrés Muñoz. All of them may be needed to silence a Blue Jays offense that has scored at least six runs in three of the last four games.

Looming even larger are the things that aren't working for the Mariners right now. Gilbert's latest flop continued a bad run in this series by starters not named Bryce Miller. And for its part, the offense remains on the fritz even after Wilson's overdue change for Game 5. Arozarena had to leave the leadoff spot, but replacing him with Julio was a questionable move that hasn't yielded results. He is hitless in the last two games.

The offense in general has been largely lifeless outside of clutch homers by Raleigh and Suárez in Game 5. Take away the five runs they got on those two swings, and the Mariners only have nine runs to show for the last four games. And if any difference is apparent between their lineup and Toronto's after six games, it's that the latter is much stronger at the bottom end.

Of course, all will be forgiven if the Mariners go out and win Game 7 on Monday. Lest anyone give in to pessimism, just remember they have already beaten the Blue Jays three times in this series. And despite what happened in Game 3, you take a matchup like Kirby vs. Shane Bieber, who simply isn't a threat to miss bats like the last two starters the Mariners have seen — indeed, they probably never want to see another splitter after the ones they saw from Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage.

But if the Mariners weren't already a canary in a coal mine, they sure are now. This will be the first Game 7 in franchise history, and it'll only be one fans in the Pacific Northwest will want to talk about if they win it.