SEATTLE — Balls aren’t supposed to fly out of T-Mobile Park as they did on Wednesday, especially not on a cool October night.
But the Toronto Blue Jays couldn’t be contained.
Andres Gimenez, George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger homered as the Blue Jays clobbered the host Seattle Mariners 13-4 in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
Shane Bieber (1-0) overcame a shaky first inning to post a quality start as the Blue Jays pulled within 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday night in Seattle.
“I said it when we left Toronto, I hope we find some slug in the air out here. Maybe we did,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “… I’m really happy with the way we played today and the way we executed a game plan and we’re going to have to do it again tomorrow. It’s just one day at a time right now.”
Julio Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the opening inning for the Mariners, but the Blue Jays followed with 12 unanswered runs.
Seattle’s Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh hit back-to-back shots in the eighth as the teams combined for eight home runs.
Guerrero finished 4-for-4 with a homer and two doubles. Springer and Gimenez each collected three of Toronto’s 18 hits.
The Blue Jays failed to score a run after the second inning in the first two games of the series, but they scored five times in the third on Wednesday and tacked on runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth to pull away.
Mariners starter George Kirby (0-1) cruised through the first two innings, allowing only an infield single, but seemed to struggle with his command after that. Kirby gave up eight runs on eight hits in four-plus innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Ernie Clement led off the Toronto third with a double, and Gimenez followed with a homer to right-center to tie the score at 2-2. With one out, Nathan Lukes singled and Guerrero doubled. Kirby walked Kirk with two outs to load the bases. A wild pitch brought home the go-ahead run, and Daulton Varsho doubled to right to make it 5-2.
“Yeah, I think definitely something changed for our offense,” said Gimenez, who admitted he was just trying to move the runner to third on the ball that went out. “But we came tonight with a mentality to attack and try to do our job the best we can, and we did it.”
Springer homered to center with two outs in the fourth to extend the Blue Jays’ lead to 6-2.
Guerrero hit the first pitch of the fifth over the wall in center. Following a walk to Anthony Santander, Kirby was pulled. Kirk greeted reliever Carlos Vargas with a single, and with two outs, Clement singled to make it 8-2.
“This is a (Toronto) team that has swung the bat well all year, and they didn’t miss much tonight, and they were able to get to (Kirby),” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.
Gimenez and Springer began the sixth with singles off Vargas, who was replaced by Caleb Ferguson. Lukes hit a tapper down the first base line to score Gimenez from third before Guerrero was walked intentionally. An out later, Kirk went deep to right — his three-run shot increasing the lead to 12-2.
Bieber pitched six innings and gave up two runs on four hits, with one walk and eight strikeouts.
“Probably a little amped up coming out in the first,” Schneider said of Bieber. “He navigated that situation. To me, biggest inning of the game was the second. He strikes out the side, kind of keeps the game … where it should be. That’s just a sign of a veteran pitcher.”
–Gene Warnick, Field Level Media
