TORONTO – They played for the first time this year without the promise of a tomorrow and the Toronto Blue Jays earned themselves a Game 7 in the American League Championship Series. Trey Yesavage once again belied his age and inexperience to pitch not just beyond his years, but beyond those of most starters in the post-season. They scratched out runs and also got big swings, one from Addison Barger and yet another from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who extended a playoff run destined for franchise lore.
And then they slayed a couple of demons, one old and one new, along the way, too, staving off elimination against the Seattle Mariners the way they didn’t while blowing an 8-1 lead in Game 2 of a 2022 wild-card series, and getting through the same pocket of hitters that started the fateful eighth-inning Game 5 rally – Cal Raleigh, Jorge Polanco and Josh Naylor – in another eighth, this time with closer Jeff Hoffman tearing through the trio.
Put all together, a 6-2 victory before a roaring crowd 44,764 sent this tremendous best-of-seven to a winner-takes-all finish, with Shane Bieber set to start just the second Game 7 in Blue Jays history.
This is October baseball at its finest.
Yesavage did much of the heavy lifting to get the Blue Jays there after the gutting disappointment of a 6-2 loss in Game 5 that left manager John Schneider’s decision to use Brendon Little in the eighth an emotionally charged focal point through Saturday’s travel day.
The 22-year-old right-hander – making his third post-season start, equal to the number of regular-season starts he has in his career – put up a clean nine-pitch first and then struck out the side in the second, quickly seizing the reins of the contest.
His offence responded against Logan Gilbert, using the contact-and-pressure game employed so well all season long to produce a two-spot in the second inning.
Daulton Varsho singled and took second on Julio Rodriguez’s error in centre, Ernie Clement’s grounder was booted by Eugenio Suarez, Barger followed with an RBI single to right and before Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s dribbler to third that brought home a second run. The Blue Jays loaded the bases but Suarez made a diving stab on Guerrero’s 116 m.p.h. rocket to third and relayed to second to end the threat.
The Mariners delivered their first pressure point in the third inning, loading the bases with one out for Raleigh, but he beat a first-pitch splitter into the ground that Guerrero snared and started a pretty 3-6-1 double play to end the threat.
Building upon the momentum, Barger’s two-run shot in the bottom half, immediately after Clement’s two-out triple, extended the lead to 4-0 but Yesavage quickly found himself in another bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth, this time getting J.P. Crawford to bounce into a 4-6-3 double play to get himself out of trouble.
A third double play, this one off the bat of Julio Rodriguez, ended the top of the fifth and Guerrero opened the bottom half with his sixth homer of the post-season, matching Joe Carter and Jose Bautista for the franchise lead in playoff homers, for a 5-0 lead.
Yesavage finally wilted with two outs in the sixth, when Naylor turned on a first-pitch split and sent it 389 feet to right and Randy Arozarena followed with a base hit, prompting John Schneider to make a change.
Louis Varland took over and Suarez followed by dunking a ball into short right, allowing Arozarena to race home with a second run before J.P. Crawford struck out to end the frame.
But the Blue Jays scratched out another run in the seventh when Guerrero was hit on the elbow by Matt Brash, advanced to second on an Alejandro Kirk single, broke for third on a wild pitch and then scored to make it 6-2 on Raleigh’s wild throw.
Hoffman then struck out Raleigh and Polanco before Naylor flew out weakly to end the eighth and he then handled the ninth, too.
The Blue Jays have played in only one Game 7 – a 6-2 loss in the 1985 ALCS to the eventual World Series champion Kansas City Royals. They won their two other winner-take-all contests – a 6-3 victory in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS best remembered for Jose Bautista’s bat flip; and the 5-2, 11-inning 2016 wild-card win over the Baltimore Orioles capped by Edwin Encarnacion’s walk-off homer.
Their next moment comes Monday night.
