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In today’s SI:AM:
The Blue Jays find their Bats, and some hope
Toronto entered Wednesday’s Game 3 of the American League Championship Series needing to show signs of life. The bats that had plowed their way through the Yankees with 34 runs spread over four ALDS games had suddenly become dormant, and the Blue Jays found themselves in a 2–0 hole to the Mariners as the series headed to Seattle.
Maybe all the Jays needed was a little travel time, because they came out swinging—and hitting—on Wednesday night, pouring 13 runs on 18 hits against the Mariners and announcing to the world that this series was not over yet.
Things started out a little dicey, with righty Shane Bieber giving up a two-run home run to Julio Rodríguez in the bottom of the first. Given how the first two games in the series went, it would have been easy for things to roll downhill from there. Instead, Bieber settled and went on to finish six innings while striking out eight and not letting up another run.
After Bieber stopped the bleeding on the mound, the Blue Jays’ bats finally came back to life, hanging five runs on George Kirby in the top of the third and tacking on home runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to stretch their lead out to 12–2.
How did the Blue Jays do it? By swinging for the fences. After two games of near silence at the plate, Toronto’s hitters would have been forgiven if they had chosen to pick their spots, hoping to wait for the perfect pitch to hit and break their cold streak.
Instead, they simply started swinging, with batters up and down the lineup looking to get after Kirby before he could put himself ahead in the count. It worked. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer both hit home runs on the first pitch of their at-bats, and the rest of the Blue Jays weren’t shy about swinging away early, either. It was truly a team effort at the plate, with six different batters notching at least two hits on the night.
While Guerrero made the most noise with his bat, he was quick to credit shortstop Andrés Giménez, who batted ninth, for sparking the rally with his game-tying home run in the third. Giménez is far from a slugger and hit just seven home runs during the regular season, but once his bat got hot, something clicked for the rest of the lineup.
“Definitely changed the momentum right there, coming from Andres,” Vladimir Guerrero Jr. said through his interpreter, Hector Lebron, when asked about the impact of Giménez’s homer. “That's what happens when you trust your teammates. You’ve got to trust everyone in that lineup and when you tie the game like that, everything changed in that dugout.”
“You never know who it’s going to be, right?” manager John Schneider said of Giménez's hit. “Really big swing to get us going and on down the line that inning. That was a big swing from Andrés.”
Once the bats were rolling, the vibes were extremely high for Toronto. Leading the way for Toronto was Guerrero, who went 4-for-4 at the plate with three runs scored, including his dinger. Late in the game and sitting a triple away from becoming the second player in MLB history to hit for the cycle in the postseason, Guerrero hit a ball to the gap in right. It would have been a stretch, but with history on the line and the game well in hand, no one would have minded Guerrero pushing for third. Instead, he held up at second and kept the lineup moving. No taking chances in the playoffs.
While the win gives the Blue Jays plenty of hope after their offense no-showed the first two games of the series, there is still work to do, with veteran pitcher Max Scherzer on the mound tonight to try to keep the momentum rolling.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made a key adjustment before Game 3 that got the ball back in the air—and the Blue Jays responded with an offensive explosion. Tom Verducci breaks down the seismic shift in the ALCS.
- Chris Mannix sits down with Kevin Durant to unpack how his move to Houston came together, from his desire to join a contender without a roster overhaul to the Rockets’ vision of adding a star to their rising core.
- In this week’s mailbag, Albert Breer breaks down the key factors that will shape the Titans’ search for their next coach and whether top candidates will view the job as an attractive opportunity.
- The conversation around these Jets should focus on 2027, not their past, as they quietly build a foundation for long-term success, writes Greg Bishop.
- Sports Illustrated’s men’s college basketball preseason Top 25 countdown continues with No. 12, where Dusty May’s squad looks poised to build on last year’s rapid rise and aim even higher this season.
- The Big Ten boasts one of the deepest lineups in the country, but can this be the year the league finally breaks its 25-year national title drought? Purdue, Michigan and Illinois headline the contenders.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. The Utah Mammoth has a mascot. Would Tusky win in a fight vs. Gritty? Time will tell.
4. When a goal immediately devolves into fisticuffs, oh yeah, you know hockey is back.
3. Cooper Flagg dunking. This man is must-see TV before he’s even played a regular-season game.
2. Mariners fans attempting to Rally Shoe their team back into the game.
1. Mad Dog’s rant about not enjoying his car service on Wednesday morning.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Blue Jays’ Offensive Explosion Reignites ALCS.