From utter futility to a startling fusillade: That’s the story of the Toronto Blue Jays in this American League Championship Series.
And after two games of punchless offense was followed by a lineup uprising in Game 3, they are still very much in it.
The Blue Jays annihilated Seattle Mariners starter George Kirby and three relievers, banging out 18 hits and five home runs in a 13-4 victory Oct. 15 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
The biggest wake-up call? Vladimir Guerrero Jr., held hitless in seven at-bats at Rogers Centre, ripped a pair of doubles and a homer in his 4-for-4 night, serving notice the series’ most dangerous hitter would not go quietly.
Seattle still leads this series 2-1, and in Game 4, the Blue Jays will trot out 41-year-old Max Scherzer for his first start this postseason. Perhaps Game 3 was just a speed bump on the way to the Mariners’ first World Series appearance ever.
Or maybe this series has truly taken a turn.
The road team has won every game in this best-of-seven, a trend the Blue Jays hope holds for Games 4 and 5. It looked like an early winter in Ontario after Julio Rodriguez hit a two-run, first-inning home run, and Mariners starter Kirby continued his solid postseason with two scoreless innings.
And then they jumped him: No. 9 hitter Andrés Giménez tied the score with a two-run homer and Daulton Varsho ripped a two-run double, Toronto taking a 5-2 lead in the top of the third.
George Springer and Guerrero added home runs in the fourth and fifth, and Kirby was chased without recording an out in that inning, with eight runs charged to him.
The lead was extended to 12-2 before solo homers by Randy Arozarena, and Cal Raleigh prettied the scoreboard in the eighth.
But what a turnabout: Toronto had no extra-base hits and just eight overall in 61 at-bats (.131) in their two losses at Rogers Centre. In Game 3: seven extra-base hits and 18 overall.
It’ll all go back to zero in Game 4. But the Blue Jays, at long last, are on the board in the ALCS.
