SEATTLE — As Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider walked to the mound with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning Thursday, he knew what to expect.
The full “Mad Max” effect.
Before Schneider even reached the slope of the mound, Max Scherzer made it clear there was no way he was going to leave one out shy of qualifying for his first postseason victory since 2019.
Scherzer ended up going 5 2/3 innings in the Blue Jays’ 8-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners that evened the American League Championship Series at two wins apiece.
“I’ve been waiting for that all year, for Max to yell at me on the mound,” Schneider said. “I thought he was going to kill me. … It’s not fake. He has this ‘Mad Max’ persona, but he backed it up tonight. …
“He started the conversation with, ‘I’m good.’ And I said, ‘Are you sure?’ And I can’t really — you can probably read lips, but I told him to execute … and he did.”
Andres Gimenez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. both homered for the second straight game as the Blue Jays won their second game in a row on the road to square the best-of-seven series after dropping the first two at home.
Gimenez drove in four runs, and he, Guerrero, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ernie Clement each had two of Toronto’s 11 hits.
Josh Naylor homered and went 3-for-3 for the Mariners, who will play host to Game 5 on Friday.
Scherzer (1-0) was charged with two runs on three hits in the 500th start of his major league career. He walked four and struck out five. The 41-year-old right-hander, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, was making his first appearance since Sept. 24. A neck ailment kept him off the Blue Jays’ AL Division Series roster.
Scherzer said he was going over the options in his mind of how to attack the next hitter when he noticed Schneider on his way to the mound.
“I kind of went ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ Like, I’m not coming out of this ballgame. I feel too good,” Scherzer said. “So we had a little conversation that basically I wanted to stay in the ballgame but just with some other words involved. I just knew I was strong, I knew I wanted the ball, I knew I could get outs in this situation. I just wanted to stay in. I wanted it.”
Toronto fell behind on Naylor’s leadoff homer to right-center field in the second inning before taking the lead in the third.
Kiner-Falefa opened the frame with a double down the left field line, and Gimenez followed with a homer to right off Luis Castillo (1-1).
With one out, Nathan Lukes and Guerrero singled before Alejandro Kirk walked to load the bases, prompting Mariners manager Dan Wilson to replace Castillo with left-hander Gabe Speier. The move backfired when Speier walked Daulton Varsho to give the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead.
Castillo yielded three runs on five hits and a walk in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out one.
“I think our guys have thrown the ball well all season long and have done that (in the postseason),” Wilson said. “This is two good teams going at it. This is what the championship series is all about. We will make our adjustments and continue to do that and continue to do the things that we do that make us successful as well.”
Kiner-Falefa led off the fourth with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Gimenez and scored on George Springer’s double. Springer took third on a groundout before jogging home on a wild pitch by Matt Brash to make it 5-1.
The Mariners got a run back in the sixth after Jorge Polanco drew a two-out walk to end Scherzer’s night. Reliever Mason Fluharty walked Naylor before Eugenio Suarez lined a run-scoring single, with right fielder Addison Barger throwing out Naylor at third to end the inning.
Guerrero went deep to right-center with one out in the seventh off Eduard Bazardo to make it 6-2.
The Blue Jays tacked on two more runs in the eighth. Clement led off with a single and Barger walked. After a sacrifice bunt by Kiner-Falefa, Gimenez grounded a two-run single up the middle to extend the lead to 8-2.
Schneider struggled to explain how the visiting team has won each of the first four games in the series.
“Baseball. Weird. Who knows?” he said. “We played well here this year. I don’t know if the guys think about that. I think they just kind of turn the page to the next game. I can’t really explain it. We love playing at home. The first two games didn’t work out that way. But I love the way we have come back here the last two games and we got to keep it going (Friday).”
–Field Level Media
