The Blue Jays feasted on starting pitchers in the postseason

The Toronto Blue Jays are in the middle of a storybook season. The impossible seems more and more possible with each passing day. As the club prepares to put the finishing touches on the 2025 season, it’s worth taking a step back and understanding exactly what this franchise has accomplished in such a short time.

Above all, this is a ridiculous offensive weight that has propelled a group of believers to within one game of a World Series championship. The Blue Jays score a multitude of points! Specifically, the Blue Jays have beaten and bruised some of the best starting pitchers in baseball.

The Blue Jays feasted on starting pitchers in the postseason

Imagine how demoralizing it must be for an opponent when you’re chasing a starting pitcher at such an early stage in the game. According to ESPN’s Paul Hembekides, the Yankees, Mariners and Dodgers starters have a collective 6.66 ERA against the Blue Jays in the postseason (54 ER in 73 IP). That ERA is on par with the Colorado Rockies’ starting rotation last season (6.65 ERA).

The playoffs are all about getting off to a good start. The days of facing a pitching team like the Rockies are long gone. Still, the Blue Jays certainly handled their business in a series against this inferior team. The Blue Jays are using their high contact, low whiff approach to piss off starting pitchers.

Think about the Yankees’ series and how Toronto ambushed Max Fried, an All-Star who posted a 2.86 ERA in 2025. They knocked him down for seven earned runs. Or the Mariners series in which they gave starter George Kirby his worst career outing. Kirby allowed eight earned runs, including three home runs. All of that damage came in four innings as the Blue Jays ultimately managed an insane 18 hits in a bludgeoning performance.

The style and manner in which the Blue Jays attacked Fried was emblematic of their offensive approach all season. Credit must be given to the hitting coaches.

Blake Snell is another pitcher the Blue Jays made ridiculous when it mattered most. In Game 1 of the World Series, the Blue Jays’ plan was to chase the starting pitcher so he could tackle a brutal Dodgers bullpen. Mission accomplished.

29 pitches were thrown in the first inning of this game, and a particularly long at-bat against Daulton Varsho ended with a fly-out to center with no runs scored. Moving forward, the Blue Jays need to capitalize on these early game situations. Even after Snell made adjustments and pitched again in Game 5, the Blue Jays stunned everyone with back-to-back homers to open the game.

These moments all speak to a larger story. They demonstrate that the Blue Jays have a good chance of beating anyone, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yamamoto silenced them in his first start even though the Blue Jays had an early scoring opportunity that they needed to take advantage of.

Again, it needs to be mentioned how the Blue Jays are doing all of this without the individual they signed who was supposed to provide massive production in the middle of their lineup. Oh, and they were missing shortstop Bo Bichette until the start of the World Series. How about doing this with George Springer who is probably playing with a million minor injuries?

Baseball is a funny thing and the Blue Jays were struggling offensively. Expecting them to hit any type of starting pitch would have been a dream. They are now blowing out some of the best starting pitchers in the game.