The Toronto Blue Jays mashed the ball all over T-Mobile Park on Wednesday, cooling the red-hot Mariners in Seattle to get right back into the American League Championship Series.
After two sluggish games at the plate in Toronto, the Jays erupted offensively in a 13-4 Game 3 victory in the Pacific Northwest, to narrow the Mariners’ lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1.
Toronto was slugging up and the down the lineup, including home runs by George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Andres Gimenez, Alejandro Kirk, and Addison Barger, shushing what had been an electric atmosphere inside T-Mobile Park.
After scoring just three runs total in the first two games, and recording just eight hits, the Jays exploded for a whopping 18 hits on Wednesday.
Shane Bieber, who got the win, was solid in his six-inning start for the Jays, striking out eight while allowing four hits and two runs. They both came in the first inning as Bieber got off to an uneasy start.
He walked Randy Arozarena in the first, before Julio Rodriguez smashed a two-run homer for a fast Seattle lead, and the stadium shook. Then he allowed a double to the wall. After that, Bieber shut the Mariners down – including a bounce-back second inning, when he struck out the side.
“It was an unfortunate start, but I came into the dugout and told the guys like, ‘pick me up, like, I got good stuff tonight,’” said Beiber. “And they definitely listened and picked me up in a huge way,”
Bieber had imagined starts like Wednesday’s while he was out recovering from Tommy John surgery last year.
“That’s what they brought me here to do,” added the pitcher.
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It was the first game inside T-Mobile Park since Mariners ended the Detroit Tigers season on Friday night in a 15-inning marathon. The M’s had then gone to Toronto and dominated the Jays in two games at Rogers Centre, so Seattle fans were hyped to see their team come home.
The Blue Jays killed their buzz in a five-run third inning, starting with an Ernie Clement double, then a two-run shot by Andres Gimenez that tied the game – perhaps the biggest moment-shifting swing of Toronto’s series so far.
“I swung hard, but basically I was trying to hit the ball a little bit in front, just to hit it to that part of the field so Ernie could get to third,” said Gimenez. “But, you know, I’m okay with what happened.”
The Jays then loaded the bases and took advantage of mistakes by Seattle starter George Kirby, like Nathan Lukes coming home on a wild pitch. Daulton Varsho, who didn’t have a hit in the first two games of the series, cracked a two-run double.
Springer drilled a solo shot in the fourth – the 22nd postseason homer of his career – lapping up the boos as he rounded the bases.
There were boos for Guerrero too, when he sailed one to the centre field wall in the fifth, just beating the outstretched glove of Seattle’s center fielder for another homer. After going hitless in the first two games, Guerrero was 4-4 in Game 3.
Kirk’s three-run homer in the sixth stunned the fans into silence. By the time Barger clubbed his in the ninth, many Mariners fans had left.
Lukes and Clement added RBIs to Toronto’s tally.
Trailing 2-0 in the series, Jays manager John Schneider had shaken up the batting order to try and stir something for Game 3. He moved Addison Barger – who usually hits fourth – down to the No.7 spot, and inserted Anthony Santander into the cleanup spot. Ernie Clement moved from seventh to eighth in the order. The aggressive approach they’d had at the plate all series didn’t change, but the result did.
“No one expected us to win the division, no one expected it us to be here, and I think the guys take that to heart. And I couldn’t believe prouder of the way they went about today. We talked about of the game about normalcy, and it’s one thing to say it and force it, but it’s another thing to do it and live it. So I’m proud of the way they did it. “
Seattle star starter George Kirby left the game after four innings, allowing eight hits and eight runs, while striking out four and walking two.
The Mariners mounted a small late-game comeback with back-to-back homers by Arozarena and Cal Raleigh in the eighth. But it was too big a hole to overcome.
The road team has now won all three games in this series.
Game 4 is Thursday in Seattle, and the Jays have assured themselves of a Game 5 on Friday.