The Toronto Blue Jays entered the American League Championship Series (ALCS) fully embracing the team’s “Want It All” slogan.
They’ll need to beat the Seattle Mariners tonight and again tomorrow at Toronto’s Rogers Centre for that rallying cry to remain possible. Despite outhitting the Mariners 44-36 and outscoring them 27-25 over the first five games, the Blue Jays trail the best-of-seven ALCS 3-2 and are on the brink of elimination.
But Jays manager John Schneider says his team isn’t preparing for Game 6 any differently because they’ve been locked in all year.
“We all know what’s at stake, but I think you have to go play your game,” Schneider said in a pre-game news conference Sunday in Toronto.
“I think that’s what we’ve done all year, and you gotta lean into it … these guys are really good at getting prepared every day, so there’s no other way to go about it.”
Blue Jays rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage will be on the mound tonight. He also started Game 2, allowing five runs over four innings as the Jays fell to Seattle 10-3 in Game 2 last week in Toronto.
Jays slugger George Springer will be back in the lineup for Game 6 after he was hit on the knee by a pitch and forced to leave Game 5 in Seattle on Friday.
Toronto outfielder Daulton Varsho says that despite the Jays losing in dramatic fashion on a grand slam by the Mariners in Game 5, he’s not worried that momentum has shifted in Seattle’s favour for Game 6, noting the back-and-forth nature of the series has primed the Jays for this moment.
“Honestly, I think [momentum lasts] a couple innings,” Varsho said. “A big momentum swing can happen, but a team can come back really fast.”
Seattle manager Dan Wilson echoed those sentiments.
“Emotion, momentum — you call it what you want — does play a big role in the post-season, for sure, but each game presents its own challenges,” Wilson said.
“You treat each game differently … I think it’s kind of played out that way in this series.”
The Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider discussed his call to start reliever Brendon Little in the 8th inning. The Jays lost 6-2 to the Seattle Mariners in Game 5 of the ALCS Friday and trail 3-2 in the series.
Seattle’s first-round pick in the 2018 MLB draft, right-hander Logan Gilbert, will start for the Mariners and he is aiming to lead his team to its first World Series appearance in franchise history.
Seattle won the first two games of the ALCS in Toronto, while the Jays won the next two in Seattle by scores of 13-4 for Game 3 and 8-2 for Game 4, before losing 6-2 in Friday’s Game 5, even though they had a one-run lead and the score was 2-1 heading into the eighth inning.
The winner of the ALCS will go on to face the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
Toronto has not advanced the World Series since 1993 — when the Jays were last champions — while Seattle has never advanced to the Fall Classic.
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