SEATTLE (AP) — Tired in Toronto, the Blue Jays slugged in Seattle.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer woke up Toronto as the Blue Jays hit five home runs to rebound from an early deficit, routing the Mariners 13-4 Wednesday night, Oct. 15 and closing to 2-1 in the AL Championship Series.
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.
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 Rodríguez’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 seeking its first World Series appearance.
Andrés Giménez 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 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 postseason record of eight combined home runs, set by the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis in Game 3 of the 2015 NL Division Series and matched by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston in Game 2 of the 2017 World Series.
Giménez hadn’t homered since Aug. 27 before his drive off a Kirby fastball.
“Definitely something changed for our offense,” Giménez 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.”
Kirby’s run-scoring wild pitch put Toronto ahead 3-2 and Daulton Varsho followed with a two-run double.
Springer homered in the fourth, tying Bernie Williams for fourth on the career list with his 22nd postseason homer. Guerrero hit his fourth of the postseason for a 7-2 lead on the first pitch of the fifth.
Kirk added a three-run homer in the sixth and is hitting .413 (19 for 46) with eight RBIs in 14 games at T-Mobile Park.
Bieber, who got the win, pitched shutout ball after the first and wound up allowing four hits in six innings — the longest outing by a Blue Jays starter in seven postseason games.
“Obviously didn’t start the way he would have wanted to, but that’s pretty much who he is,” Springer said. “He can battle back from anything.”
After the Blue Jays opened a 12-2 lead, Randy Arozarena connected in the eighth against Yariel Rodríguez for his first home run since Sept. 9 and Cal Raleigh, who led the major leagues with 60 home runs during the regular season, followed three pitches later with his third of the postseason.
“If there’s one thing we’ve done since I’ve been here, we bounce back together well as a team,” Mariners reliever Caleb Ferguson said. “We respond well when we kind of get smacked in the face a little bit.”
Up next
Seattle RHP Luis Castillo, who pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief against Detroit in Game 5 of the Division Series, starts Thursday against RHP Max Scherzer. The 41-year-old, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, is 0-3 over eight postseason starts since the 2019 World Series opener and hasn’t started since Sept. 24.
