SEATTLE — The notion of clinching their first-ever berth in the World Series this week in front of their home fans ended Thursday evening. Any hasty plans for an overdone Champagne celebration at T-Mobile Park featuring Humpy the Salmon should have been incinerated after the drubbing they absorbed 24 hours earlier.

The now-questionable thinking they might end the American League Championship Series in five games or less has been replaced by the realization of a guaranteed return trip to Canada — something nobody associated with the Mariners wanted to happen.

All the feel-good stories about a moribund franchise finally getting it right and breaking through in the postseason might have been a little premature. After winning the first two games in Toronto, building the growing hype into hys

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