SEATTLE -- The sunny Sunday stage was set for yet another late-innings comeback in front of a bustling T-Mobile Park crowd against a past and possibly future October opponent.

For the first time in a stirring weekend series, however, the Mariners couldn’t deliver the drama, dropping a taut finale to the Blue Jays by the score of 4-3.

The Mariners and their fans had to love the situation: only one out and runners on second and third with face-of-the-franchise Julio Rodríguez on deck and slugger Eugenio Suárez in the hole against Toronto closer Jordan Romano, who had been tormented by Seattle in this series and dating back to the AL Wild Card Series last year.

“Things were looking pretty good right there,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “We gave ourselves a chance where it's one hit or getting a ball in play there and you get the run in to tie the game, and see where it goes from there.

“It didn’t happen, but not for a lack of effort.”

Rodríguez worked the count to 2-2 and fouled off a fastball before striking out on an 89.2 mph slider, and Suárez flied out to left field to end it. Seattle missed out on the chance to sweep the Blue Jays, whom the Mariners are chasing in the AL Wild Card standings, now by 4 1/2 games. They are 8 1/2 games behind division-leading Texas in the AL West.

The Mariners, who had rallied from behind to win one-run games on Friday and Saturday in a charged ballpark packed with a strong mixture of Seattle faithful and vacationing Canadian fans -- on the same weekend as Taylor Swift’s two concerts at Lumen Field across the street -- just couldn’t summon the same magic in the finale.

But the mood in the clubhouse after the game indicated that maybe there’s more mojo in store for the rest of the season. Even with the loss, the Mariners are 12-7 in July. Now they travel to Minnesota and Arizona for a pair of crucial three-game series with a little more than a week until the Trade Deadline on Aug. 1.

“I love the way we're playing right now,” Servais said. “Just the energy, the competitiveness that we have, knowing that we're not going to quit, we're in every game, and you're seeing that with the effort our guys are giving.”

Rodríguez agreed, saying what the team has been putting forth of late is more of what the Mariners are accustomed to after making the postseason last year.

“I feel like we are kind of taking care of things and playing the baseball that we know,” Rodríguez said. “We’re competing out there. Today we didn't have the results we wanted, but we were competing and we’re definitely a more confident team now.”

The matinee played out like most of the games between these two teams in the last several seasons: back-and-forth with late-innings drama.

The Mariners took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Mike Ford hit an Alek Manoah fastball off the façade of the second deck for a two-run home run, and the Blue Jays answered in the top of the fourth inning with a two-run shot of their own. 

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. crushed the game-tying blast off Seattle rookie right-hander Bryan Woo into the first row of seats beyond the right-field wall for Toronto’s first hit of the game after Woo had recorded seven of his first 11 outs via the strikeout. Woo flashed a fastball that reached 98 mph while pitching into the seventh inning.

“The fastball felt good,” Woo said. “Everything felt good for the most part. I was just wanting to come out with more energy today.”

Toronto took a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth when Brandon Belt lofted a towering solo homer that landed in the seats in right just past the outstretched glove of Mariners right fielder Teoscar Hernández, but Seattle fought back to knot the game at 3-3 in the bottom of that frame when Dylan Moore came through with a pinch-hit RBI single off Jays reliever Tim Mayza.

The Blue Jays scratched back in the top of the seventh, taking a 4-3 lead on a pinch-hit RBI single by Santiago Espinal, and setting up the Mariners for yet another ninth-inning comeback that didn’t quite materialize.

“I think our guys played their tail off, and you couldn't ask for anything more from our group,” Servais said. “You're hoping for a little bit more magic there at the end. It just didn't happen today.”