SEATTLE — Somewhere along the 2,100-mile flight from Toronto to Seattle, the Blue Jays found their bats.
Somewhere along their trip west, Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins also sent manager John Schneider a video of the 1996 World Series, when the New York Yankees lost the first two home games only to rally back and win the next four.
The message: This series is not over.
The Blue Jays, after losing the first two games of the American League Championship Series at home, tattooed baseballs all over T-Mobile Park Wednesday night, smashing five homers and four doubles in a 13-4 rout of the Seattle Mariners to get back into the series and avoid facing a playoff game Thursday.
It always helps when the big guy does his thing – the big guy being Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Blue Jays’ $500 million man who is the centerpiece of their roster. He went 4-for-4 with a home run to center field, a screaming double off the left field wall, another double into the left-center gap and a single up the middle. The exit speeds of the four shots: 108 mph, 106 mph, 105 mph and 103 mph.
After going 0 for 7 in the first two games against Seattle, Vladdy Jr. is back – and so are the Blue Jays.
“He’s one of the best hitters in the world,” teammate Addison Barger said. “When he plays, it’s scary. I feel bad for the pitchers.”
Guerrero said: “It’s great, obviously, but for me it’s just about winning. I’m very happy that we won the game. I never think about myself. I think about all that.”
Guerrero wasn’t the only one crushing the ball in Game 3. After collecting just eight hits in the first two losses, the Blue Jays knew their game plan: put the ball in the air more often — and hit it hard when you do, as they did against the Yankees in the AL Division Series, when they hit .338 and scored 34 runs in four games, with Guerrero hitting three homers and nine runs. That is exactly what they did, with absolute authority.
In these first two games against Seattle, the Blue Jays have only put 10 total balls in play at 100 mph or faster. There was nothing cheap about their five-run outburst against George Kirby in the third inning. They had four hits in the inning at over 103 mph, with No. 9 hitter Andres Gimenez starting the attack with a two-run homer to right field and Daulton Varsho finishing it with a two-run laser beam of a double over the wall in right.
“If they give us a first pitch, the pitch we’re looking for, we’re going to attack and we’re going to be aggressive,” Guerrero said.
The exclamation points came on George Springer’s 431-foot blast to center field in the fourth, Guerrero’s homer to center in the fifth and Alejandro Kirk’s three-run homer to opposite field to right in the sixth.
The Blue Jays had Mariners fans in the outfield stands scattering like seagulls looking for leftovers at Ivar’s Acres of Clams on Alaskan Way.
In total, the Blue Jays had 13 balls in play over 100 mph – and 11 of them came with hits. Springer’s home run was the loudest, his 22nd career postseason home run and 40th career extra base hit, only the sixth player in postseason history to reach 40.
The Blue Jays jumped all over Kirby early in the count, especially on his fastball, knowing he would pound the strike zone with his four-seamer and sinker. Gimenez’s home run came on an 0-1 four-seamer, Varsho’s double came on a 1-1 four-seamer, Springer’s home run was on a first-pitch sinker and Guerrero’s home run was off a first-pitch slider. Ernie Clement’s double to start the third inning was also on a first-pitch sinker. All eight hits against Kirby came when the count was 1-1 or earlier.
“We have to be aggressive,” said Barger, who hit the team’s final homer of the night in the ninth inning. “You can’t just wait and hope for results. I think that played a big role. You just have to attack early and see what happens.”
Kirby is known for always being near the strike zone; he walked only 29 batters in 23 regular season starts and just one in his two ALDS starts against the Detroit Tigers.
“I will never stray from what I do: move forward,” Kirby said. “I think they were really comfortable at the plate. Maybe next time throw inside more.”
As for the Popkins video, Blue Jays players haven’t seen it but agreed it looked like something the manager was going to do.
Clement grew up a Yankees fan and knew about that 1996 World Series.
“I remember watching, I think it was ‘100 Years of the Yankees’ or something, a documentary, and I remember seeing Joe Torre, without any panic,” Clement recalled. “They lost the first two, and he said, ‘We’re going to go back to Atlanta and make it happen.’ It’s this lack of panic that’s so huge. Like, we’re in this together. »
Barger agreed.
“On the course,” he said of Popkins. “Absolutely. I think the message is just to keep your head up. We’re a great team. We’ve done that all year.”
Everyone seemed to be in on the action for the Blue Jays: As part of an 18-hit attack, they had six players with multiple hits and at least one RBI, the first team to do that in a playoff game since the Texas Rangers in the 2011 ALCS. The five home runs tied the most ever for an AL team in a playoff game – something the Blue Jays also did in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Yankees. The combined eight homers also tied the MLB record for most in a postseason game, matching Game 3 of the 2015 NLDS between the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals and Game 2 of the 2017 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros.
Meanwhile, after serving up a 414-foot, two-run homer to Julio Rodriguez in the bottom of the first inning, Shane Bieber settled in and showed why the Blue Jays acquired him at the trade deadline, even though he was still in the final stages of recovery from his 2024 Tommy John surgery.
Rodriguez had connected with a fastball. After the first inning, Bieber switched to a steady diet of sliders, curveballs, cutters and changeups, throwing just 20 fastballs in his 84 pitches over six innings. Since his return in August, Bieber had thrown about 37% fastballs, but he ended up at just 23% in this game.
It worked: He induced 17 swings and misses — more than his last two outings combined, his last regular-season start and his start against the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALDS, when Schneider retired him in the third inning after allowing five hits and three runs.
“I’ve said it a lot, that’s why you acquire a guy like Shane,” Schneider said. “You see how he’s doing. He was making big throws.”
For the Mariners, their dream of winning the first World Series trip in franchise history at home now means they will have to win the next two games — or the series will return to Toronto, where the Blue Jays had the best home record in the AL during the regular season.
“It’s just a game,” Rodriguez said. “They’re here for a reason too. That’s the motto of baseball. You have to move forward.”
