​Santander done for the year, Loperfido on the roster. official.

Shi Davidi
@ShiDavidi
The injury for Anthony Santander is lumbar spine inflammation.

Joey Loperfido has been with team throughout post-season, working out to stay ready.

Bo Bichette hit on the field and ran in the outfield but hasn't tried to run the bases again since his attempt Saturday.

I thought it was a bit of a fool's game to rush Santander back, but I'm glad they didn't hesitate on pulling the plug with him if his health is going to be dicey for the rest of the playoffs.

Glad they acted quickly.

it's unforunate that his back went. probably not completely unrelated to his other injury but at the same time it's still a completely different new second injury.

ok max.

​add one more legend to your legendary career.

95 to Raleigh there. that'll do.

96 now

uh oh max. dial it in a bit

double play would be nice now.

oooohhhh that was a great pitch.


mad max folks.

96.5 high that inning. Must be his hardest pitch of the year.

These Mariners seem rather unstoppable in their ability to hit balls over the fence. The key, me thinks, is to continue making sure these are solo shots not back breaking jackpots.

These early gopher balls to opponents is getting old -- Like last night though, plenty of game left.

Yeah, giving up HR has always been a weakness of our pitching so it doesn't match up well. But I do have faith in our offense and resiliency, so, as with yesterday, there's still a lot of innings left.

Many of us were questioning IKF, so of course the hit.

8-9 again!!

Andres Gimenez cleanup hitter is back! What an AB.

Gimenez!

thank you, Greatkins!

Andres “Stealth Dumper” Gimenez

Early hook...from Seattle!

friendly ump / bad receiving by Cal. I'll take it.

Dan Wilson just hit the panic button tho.

Knocking out the SP early bodes well for both this and next game possibly. But really bases loaded and 1 out means this could be the key PA of the game.

Fantastic PA by Varsho. A+

letting barger face the lefty was a choice.

Would have been good to get another one out of that but great inning. Another horrible ab by Barger too.

Disappointing PA by Clement and Barger, but still a great inning: the Blue Jays scored 3 runs, knocked out Castillo, and forced the top M’s LH reliever to enter the game in the third inning and throw 17 pitches.

Hope that those back-to-back ugly Ks with the bases loaded don't come back to bite us -- Let's go, Max!

Scherzer walking the tightrope. Gotta be ready to get him out of there if he falters much more.

Good job to get Arozarena after the unfortunate leadoff walk to Rivas.

Wow huge pickoff by Scherzer!

great move, great tag.



massive clutch play.

One of those weird things I greatly enjoy in baseball is witnessing an excellent pickoff throw from a RH pitcher to first base (the disadvantage is obvious of course). That one there has to be one of my all-time favourites should the Jays hold on to win this one. Great timing by Scherzer and Guerrero’s tag was perfect.

Not pinch hitting Schneider for Barger in the 3rd inning might come back to haunt the Jays later. That was a huge moment in the game, and Barger aside from a garbage time home run last night has been dreadful for a while. Hopefully the Jays can tack on some more and make that decision meaningless.

I thought the Clement PA was the key one (bases loaded, one out). He got overaggressive early in the count swinging at balls).

Great ab by IKF.

Autumn of George!

made Wilson pay for that dumb choice. nice.

Could not have asked for a better start to this road game. Now lock it down with good pitching and defense, and some additional insurance runs.

max is starting to feel the legend coming on

Scherzer looks intense…fierce

Scherzer is getting a year younger each inning.

Brash had an easy inning there. Don’t take the foot off the gas, Blue Jays (to quote Ernie).

Max you absolute legend

Epic performance. Love that intensity. Live Seattle using their top bullpen guys a lot too.

So good.

So who pitches the sixth for the Blue Jays? Max? Someone else?

Hell of an outing by Max!!! The scream at the manager may be a lasting image from this game!

Not sure John Schneider would’ve returned to the dugout with all his limbs intact if he’d tried to pull Scherzer there, excellent call not to. What a gutsy performance…

Are we about to get Varland again?

I think Mad Max is done and we will get Varland, but this start went about as well as you could reasonably hope.

There was something poetic about John Schneider trying to go to the bullpen early and being scolded to go back to the dugout, especially after what happened with Gausman in Game 1.

“Barger aside from a garbage time home run last night has been dreadful”

Thanks for the diss — again! (Gimenez yesterday, Barger today)

Ummm...Barger couldn't get to third on that nubber?  Maybe to tough to gauge from 2nd base on the swinging bunt?

if max actually scared schneider into letting him face Cal and Julio for a 3rd time that's amazing.

I assume he couldn't tell on the initial contact how hard it was and by the time he read it, it was too late, in his mind, to advance, but with the Gimenez grounder, it cost them a run.

I think Max has been so good that Schneider is willing to give him a bit of rope to face the top of the order — at least a batter or two.

Also, Varland has been known to implode from time to time.

maybe it's 5yrs younger each inning.

I'm okay with this if it's leaving him in until there's a base runner.

As Buck said, Max put on a clinic.

Many of us were probably hoping for a B or B+ performance from him, and we got an A+ one.

Schneider pointed to the bullpen almost before he left the dugout.

Little has really dropped on the depth chart.

Oh man that was a bad 3-1 call by the home plate ump.

ahhh robot umps dammit

yes barger what a throw that was so clutch.

A couple of clutch Barger defensive plays this game - a catch an inning or two ago, and that throw.

Barger struck out with the bases loaded early on, but he has since had a double, made a very good catch in RF in an important situation, and gunned down a baserunner in another important situation. Pretty good.

Need to score some more runs. Three run lead isn't enough.

The Jays continue to search for a reliever who can come on in relief of the starter and not give up a run.

I’m really enjoying Buck Martinez’s broadcasting this postseason.

A superstar is born.

ahhh robot umps dammit

Not sure you'd want that tonight. The Jays' big inning was heavily contingent on Kirk walking on strike four.

Front office thanking its lucky stars they signed Vladdy to that contract.

Glad Varland is starting an inning rather than coming in with runners on base. Hopefully that leads to better results.

....and make that another Barger play

What a defensive night for Barger in RF.

letting Barger face the lefty in the 3rd was indeed a choice.


a very very good choice.

That decision to keep Barger in the game in the 3rd inning looking pretty good.

Good defense wins ballgames.

Varland threw what, 5 pitches? Six? Wonder if they let him face Arozarena to start next inning. As long as there aren’t two guys on base, he’s been pretty darn good most of the postseason.

Barger after his early K:

Great catch
Double
Guns down baserunner
Great catch
Walk

Clement goes on some crazy heaters.

best bunt of all time

Gimenez is clearly seeing the ball well at the plate. Hope this continues for a while. It’s so helpful to the team.

Good that the Blue Jays are working the Seattle ‘pen over in this game.

Alfonso Marquez has a Doug Eddings type strike zone tonight.

Crisp pitching by Hoffman to Arozarena, Raleigh, Rodriguez.

John Schneider making all the right moves.

This version of Hoffman is cool with me!

Man, the difference between good Hoffman and bad Hoffman is so stark. Let's keep seeing this one please (by not overpitching him)

Eddings and Marquez the best MLB have to offer?

Nice pitching, Hoff!

rested hoff a bit better than 4 days in 5 nights hoff.

that clearly hit the grass lmao. way clearer than that varsho crap.

my faith was definitely shaken, but i couldn't believe that this team would go down without a fight.

what a game. what an amazing season.

best of 3 now - i don't believe in momentum tho. We gotta come out as if every game is game 7.

Home Field advantage is back. Win tomorrow and Jays are in the driver seat.

Dan Wilson just hit the panic button tho.

I agree. Inexplicable to me. Castillo has been a beast this October and Varsho was the hitter - someone Castillo completely owns (1-12) and had struck out earlier in the game.

What a performance by Scherzer. Incredible stuff from a first ballot HOFer. Turned back the clock in the biggest stage. Fun to watch.

Josh Naylor had a big night (and is a lot of fun) - but making the third out of the inning at third base with the tying run stepping up tom hit... thank you very much.

Giminez' OPS of .907 would put him second on the Mariners after Raleigh, but is fifth on the Jays after Vladdy, Ernie, George and Varsho. Who said T-Mobile Park was a pitcher's stadium? :)

Two runners getting thrown out on the bases in high leverage situations, Wilson losing his marbles with the early pull and Raleigh whiffing on a very blockable ball in the dirt (he’s really not good at blocking balls in the dirt as we’ve now seen a few times) - Seattle had a rough game.

It looked like a pre-planned move.
Bring Spier for the first lefty after Kirk and keep him in until Guerrero to maximize his window.

Some fool a week ago, before the ALCS roster was announced: "I don't see any role for Scherzer.".

Never been happier to be wrong. Fantastic performance, well done Mad Max and credit to those who kept believing in him.

Amazing article in the athletic today - might be the best thing Rosenthal has produced.

Nice little tidbit hidden amongst the big mad max story was max giving credit to Kirky for calling that curve over and over again because he saw how good it was in this one.

I thought that both the Yanks' and Mariners' pitching staffs were being overrated heading into the playoffs, and that both were clearly just ok, not great, and not significantly different than ours.

But even then, what the Jays' offense is doing is legit amazing, and it's not even some crazy babip fluke:


1. TOR: 8gms, 7.38r/gm, 7.2bb%, 14.7k%, .307babip, .301avg, .246iso, .380woba, 148wrc+
2. LAD: 9gms, 4.56r/gm, 9.2bb%, 23.2k%, .317babip, .254avg, .164iso, .328woba, 110wrc+
3. SEA: 9gms, 4.22r/gm, 9.5bb%, 28.1k%, .263babip, .215avg, .167iso, .296woba, 95wrc+
4. NYY: 7gms, 4.00r/gm, 7.7bb%, 25.3k%, .319babip, .251avg, .128iso, .300woba, 93wrc+
5. CHC: 8gms, 2.88r/gm, 7.6bb%, 29.2k%, .274babip, .221avg, .169iso, .294woba, 88wrc+
6. PHI: 4gms, 3.74r/gm, 10.8bb%, 24.1k%, .265babip, .212avg, .146iso, .285woba, 80wrc+
7. MIL: 8gms, 3.13r/gm, 9.0bb%, 23.0k%, .229babip, .197avg, .141iso, .269woba, 71wrc+
8. DET: 8gms, 3.63r/gm, 8.8bb%, 26.8k%, .276babip, .207avg, .110iso, .269woba, 69wrc+
9. CLE: 3gms, 3.33r/gm, 9.1bb%, 24.2k%, .206babip, .178avg, .144iso, .251woba, 60wrc+
10. SDP: 3gms, 1.67r/gm, 4.8bb%, 19.0k%, .216babip, .189avg, .116iso, .242woba, 58wrc+
11. CIN: 2gms, 4.50r/gm, 12.7bb%, 31.6k%, .302babip, .194avg, .030iso, .251woba, 54wrc+
12. BOS: 3gms, 2.00r/gm, 9.3bb%, 27.8k%, .277babip, .198avg, .063iso, .249woba, 54wrc+



Here's arguably the Top-10 Postseason Offenses in MLB History:

1. 1910 PHA: 5gms, 7.00r/gm, 168wrc+
2. 1989 OAK: 9gms, 6.44r/gm, 153wrc+
3. 2025 TOR: 8gms, 7.38r/gm, 148wrc+
4. 1960 NYY: 7gms, 7.86r/gm, 147wrc+
5. 1970 BAL: 8gms, 7.50r/gm, 146wrc+
6. 1932 NYY: 4gms, 9.25r/gm, 139wrc+
7. 2007 BOS: 14gms, 7.07r/gm, 135wrc+
8. 2018 HOU: 8gms, 5.25r/gm, 134wrc+
9. 1976 CIN: 7gms, 5.86r/gm, 133wrc+
10. 1889 NYG: 9gms, 8.11r/gm, 132wrc+

I know it's a straight WRC+ ranking, but that's just blasphemy to rank this team over the 1889 New York Giants!

It may have been the curve looking good, or Max just not wanting to say he didn't have great command of his fastball. He looked more comfortable throwing everything else when he needed a strike.

I thought leaving Barger in with a lead there was an easy decision, considering the Mariners were burning the only lefty they trust in the 3rd inning. If the manager thought that was a good spot for Schneider, he should be starting him.

Did Little drop on the depth chart? Perhaps it was just a matter of Fluharty being the early move for lefties, with Little being held back for a high leverage spot later. Fluharty has gone 4 of the last 5 days now.

The bullpen is still in really good shape for tonight, with Lauer and Bassitt available to help.

Scherzer located a lot of first pitch fastballs right on the corners. He didn't get much chase expending from there, but he stayed away from repeating pitches.

yeah i didn't think fastball command was an issue tbh. lots of paint on the edges.

but that curveball was easily the best i've seen from him. it was deadly.

In defence of Wilson's move to pull Castillo.

Yes, Castillo had looked very good against the Tigers anemic offence. Not so much against the Jays. When Wilson walked to the mound, this was Castillo's line vs the Jays this year:

12.1 IP, 22 H, 10 R, 5 BB. 9 K. 2 HR, plus the bases loaded with one out.

Full credit to Schneider for how he handled that mound confrontation. Things could have gone very differently. That’s what leadership looks like - put your ego aside.

Here's what Castillo did leading up to the pull:

- Clement line single 91.1ev
- Barger line out (crawford snocone grab) 79.2ev
- IKF double 96.1ev
- Gimenez HR 102.4ev
- Springer groundout 76.7ev
- Lukes ground single up the middle 104.0ev
- Vladdy line single up the middle 94.6ev
- Kirk BB

What was with Scherzer shoving Walker in the dugout? Just pure adrenaline?

Schneider was asked about Max' dugout Pete Walker elbow/shove during the postgame presser.

The reporter who asked John the question gave the "It was nothing" option, which was the reply that the manager took.

I wondered that, too, but it was more a shoulder check than a push. My take is that Max was so amped up coming off the field that anybody in his way was going to get contact.

I was reading a summary of the game at one of the Seattle Mariner sites and it was interesting to see someone on the other sides take on Schneider's mound visit. The writer said," Schneider, who is known for his sometimes premature pulls of starting pitchers, headed out to the mound to talk to Scherzer and Max sent him back to the dugout with his tail between his legs."

Well, the premature part is right but I don't think Schneider had any real intention of pulling Scherzer at that point. As Dan Shulman put it, when Schneider jogs to the mound, it's usually to talk to the pitcher, and when he walks slowly he's going to call in a reliever. Regardless, I think it will be an iconic moment in Blue Jay's playoff lore.

Because Schneider: a) didn't react angrily to being yelled at; and b) didn't have a throw down with his starter on the mound in the 5th inning of the biggest game of the season, he went back "with his tail between his legs"? What a weird take. I think that's a comment based on the world around us rather than on Schneider.

If you watch that Walker/Scherzer moment in the dugout, Walker was laughing so it was definitely not an "incident". The funniest part of the whole thing was the laughing expression on Clement's face as he jogged back to 3rd.

According to the New York Times, Schneider had every intention of pulling Scherzer:

"“I tell the starters, if I walk to the mound, you’re coming out. If I jog, you can talk me out of it,” Schneider said. “I started walking. He just went, ‘NO!’ So I proceeded to jog. Before I got there, he goes, ‘I’m good. I’m f—— good!’ I said, ‘Are you? Are you sure?’ And he went, ‘YEAH!’ And I went, you better f—— execute then. And he said, ‘I f—— will!”"

Walker was standing near the entrance of the dugout, possibly waiting to talk to Scherzer and it seems like Scherzer shoved him out of the way and went to sit down further away.That was basically telling him "Don't talk to me, I'm focusing."

When Schneider came out to actually pull him the next time for real, he did what he usually does - signals to the pen as soon as he steps out of the dugout, without giving the pitcher any chance to disagree.

Honestly, it's nice to see a pitcher show that fire.

Schneider does have premature pulls, but pretty much every manager in baseball does this at the first sign of trouble these days. It either looks brilliant or stupid, depending on what happens next.

It's been awesome seeing the contributions from the bottom of the order. There is no question that our success this year has in large part been from high level depth performance.

Most importantly, no matter what happens, it's been a fun season to watch. Some seasons you get unlucky break after unlucky break. The regular season this year felt like the opposite.

I think the," Schneider went back to the dugout with his tail between his legs." was just sour grapes from the Seattle writer. I don't think John Schneider is intimidated by any of his players. Also, it appeared to me that when Max saw him coming out of the dugout, he said "Whoa!" not "No!"

Miller has pronounced splits over his career (.594/.785), so I expect to see Loperfido in the lineup tonight.

Springer
Lukes
Guerrero
Kirk
Varsho
Clement
Barger
Loperfido
Gimenez

Three lefties at the bottom aren't as big a problem against the Mariners, especially with IKF, Straw, and Schneider on the bench.

man i would hate it if Schneider can't get into the lineup even with Santander and Bichette out.

It's IKF back in the 8-hole. Ride the hot bat.