Tired in Toronto, the Blue Jays slugged in Seattle. Vladimir Guerrero Jr and George Springer on Wednesday woke up the Jays, as Toronto hit five home runs to rebound from an early deficit, routing the Mariners 13-4 and closing to 2-1 in the American League Championship Series (ALCS).
Toronto had 18 hits — all within the first three pitches of each at-bat.
“If they give us a first pitch, the pitch that we’re looking for, we’re going to attack and we’re going to be aggressive,” Guerrero said.
Photo: AP
Seattle starter George Kirby gave up eight of the hits.
“I wasn’t really executing when they got the guys on base,” Kirby said. “And they’re really aggressive when that happens. They made some good swings.”
Julio Rodriguez’s two-run, first-inning homer off former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber put Seattle ahead, and stirred thoughts of a possible sweep in the best-of-seven matchup by a team who are seeking their first World Series appearance.
Photo: AP
Andres Gimenez then sparked the comeback with a tying, two-run homer in a five-run third against Kirby.
Springer, Guerrero, Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger also went deep as the Blue Jays totaled 2,004 feet (611m) of homers.
Guerrero had four hits, falling a triple short of the cycle, after going 0 for 7 as the Blue Jays lost the first two games at home.
“No one expected us to win the division, no one expected us to be here, and I think the guys take that to heart,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I said it when we left Toronto: I hope we find some slug in the air out here. Maybe we did.”
In the 2-3-2 format, teams that lost the first two games at home and won Game 3 on the road have captured the series three of 11 times.
A crowd of 46,471 at T-Mobile Park for Seattle’s first home ALCS game since 2001 saw the teams combine to match the post-season record of eight combined home runs, set by the Chicago Cubs and the St Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the 2015 National League Division Series and matched by the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros in Game 2 of the 2017 World Series.
Gimenez had not homered since Aug. 27 before his drive off a Kirby fastball.
“Definitely something changed for our offense,” he said. “We come tonight with a mentality to attack.”
Kirby allowed eight runs, eight hits and two walks, taking the loss.
“The first couple innings I thought he was dynamite,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “This is a team that’s going to hurt you if you make mistakes on the plate. It looked like there were a couple that they were able to get to.”
Mariners reliever Caleb Ferguson said Seattle knew how to take losses in stride.
“If there’s one thing we’ve done since I’ve been here, we bounce back together well as a team,” Ferguson said. “We respond well when we kind of get smacked in the face a little bit.”
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