The Mariners' dream season ended one win short of the World Series.

Why it matters: Seattle's 4-3 loss to Toronto in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series ended the most thrilling Mariners season in a generation, one that carried the team closer to the pennant than ever before.

Driving the news: Just eight outs away from their first World Series appearance in franchise history, the Mariners watched a two-run lead vanish in the seventh inning of Game 7.

• George Springer crushed a three-run homer, flipping a 3–1 Seattle lead into a Toronto win and the Blue Jays' first American League title in 32 years.

Flashback: The Mariners' playoff run was built on a remarkable stretch of ball that began last month, fueled by hot bats, great catches, and maybe even an Etsy witch's spell.

• Seattle exploded offensively in an 18-2 rout of the Braves on Sept. 7, with five home runs and 20 hits.
• The M's won their final 16 of 17 games of the regular season and took the AL West crown, securing the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye, bypassing the Wild Card round.
• The Mariners went on to beat the Detroit Tigers in a 15-inning American League Division Series marathon on Oct. 10 to punch their ticket to the American League Championship Series.

Zoom in: Seattle won the first two games of the seven-game series against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

• They dropped two heartbreakers at home before storming back to win Game 5 in one of the most epic comebacks in franchise history.
• But they lost Sunday's Game 6, forcing last night's winner-take-all finale.

Stunning stat: Cal Raleigh hit his 65th homer of the year yesterday, setting a new American League record for home runs in combined regular season and postseason play.

• Raleigh edged out Aaron Judge's record from 2022, when Judge hit 64 homers in the regular season and the playoffs.
• Raleigh had already broken Mickey Mantle's single-season record for switch hitters in September.

What we're watching: How far the front office will go to keep some of this season's stars as they build for a run next year.

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Humpy, a cross-eyed salmon mascot, briefly became a citywide hero during the Seattle Mariners' historic postseason run.

The big picture: Mariners fans are notoriously superstitious — and the widespread belief that Humpy helped propel the M's to their first American League Championship Series in 24 years is just the latest example.

Catch up quick: The Mariners debuted the Salmon Run last year, in which four humans clad as salmon mascots race during home games at T-Mobile Park.

• Humpy, who wears a life preserver and is known for being slow and clumsy, had never won the event — until Oct. 10, when the Mariners were locked in a do-or-die slugfest against the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 of the American League Division Series.
• Humpy won the second Salmon Run of the night during the 15th inning — and, about 10 minutes later, Jorge Polanco's walk-off hit won the game for Seattle, sending the M's to compete for the American League title against Toronto.

Humpy made victory rounds throughout the city, with Mayor Bruce Harrell declaring Oct. 16 "Humpy Day."

• "There's a little bit of Humpy in all of us," Harrell said at a Mariners rally at City Hall that day.

The other side: But some fans and commentators soured on Humpy after the fish won a second Salmon Run, on Wednesday, — and the Toronto Blue Jays routed the M's 13-4 that night.

• Seattle then lost to the Jays again in Game 4.

Letting Humpy win twice in a row "is definitely crossing the baseball gods in a way that we simply can't allow," Nathan Bishop, who writes a Mariners Substack newsletter, said in an interview Friday.

• "It's pretty obvious that we need to sacrifice him in order to get the Mariners back going," Bishop said — a sentiment that has also been expressed by others online.

Yes, but: No one thought a Mariners postseason would be smooth sailing.

• Nail-biter finishes, emotional rollercoasters, close calls and heartbreak are part of the franchise's DNA at this point, as any long-suffering M's fan will tell you.

The bottom line: Whether you view Humpy as a good luck charm or a curse, the bumbling salmon mascot has embodied the Mariners' underdog energy this season — for better or worse.

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☁️ Amazon Web Services, the biggest cloud computing provider globally, went down yesterday morning — crippling thousands of services from some of the biggest companies on Earth. (Axios)

🦠 A new University of Washington and Oxford University study found that U.S. school closures during COVID-19 cost an estimated $2 trillion in future economic losses while reducing virus spread by only 8%, making them one of the less effective pandemic interventions. (KUOW)

⚖️ The Trump administration has fired Seattle immigration judge Susana Reyes — one of more than 80 judges dismissed nationwide — amid an immigration court backlog. (Seattle Times)

🥋 Bruce Lee fans raised $100,000 at a packed dim sum fundraiser to help install a bronze statue of the martial arts legend in Seattle's Hing Hay Park. (Northwest Asian Weekly)

A new terminal at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is one step closer to becoming reality.

Driving the news: The Federal Aviation Administration recently approved environmental assessments for 31 expansion projects at Sea-Tac, including the proposed 19-gate terminal, per the Port of Seattle.

The big picture: The second terminal is part of a broader master plan to ease crowding, reduce delays and modernize the airport, which ranks among the 15 busiest in the U.S.

• 52 million passengers came through Sea-Tac last year, and 56 million are forecast to pass through annually by 2032.

Zoom in: Planned improvements include automated people movers connecting the new terminal with the main one; a new rental car facility; and airfield and fuel-system upgrades.

What's next: The Port of Seattle plans to complete a state-level environmental review of the projects by the end of 2026.

Think you know Seattle? Then, guess where I was when this shot was snapped.

Here's a hint:

I stand where rain meets glass and steel

Roots in air, no earth to feel

A jungle hums where workers roam

Looks like they've found a second home.

Just hit reply or email us to submit your guess!