After consecutive blowout wins, Blue Jays are ‘without a doubt’ favourites over Mariners, Olney says

The Toronto Blue Jays crushed the Seattle Mariners 8-2 on Thursday behind a vintage performance from Max Scherzer for their second consecutive blowout victory to even the American League Championship Series at 2-2.

Game 5 goes Friday from Seattle before the series shifts back to Toronto, and the Blue Jays are in position to take a commanding series lead back to their home stadium if they can keep up the momentum.

ESPN’s Buster Olney joined First Up on TSN1050 Friday morning to discuss the victory in Game 4, his assessment of the series and how he thinks the ALCS will be decided over the weekend.

“[The Blue Jays are the favourites], without a doubt,” Olney said. “The momentum, the way the bullpens are set up for the game tonight, the way the Blue Jays hitters are swinging the bats, having their ace on the mound … All of it suggests that the Blue Jays will have the lead when they go back [to Toronto].”

Everything went right for the Blue Jays in Game 4, which was almost a carbon copy of the effort the team put forth in their 13-4 victory in Game 3.

The 41-year-old Scherzer delivered a theatrical performance that included 5.2 innings of two-run ball, a career-high tying four strikeouts on his curveball and a showdown with manager John Schneider during a mound visit that brought to life the legend of Mad Max for the players and coaches.

All of this with the backdrop of a pitcher who was making his first appearance in a game since Sept. 24, and had pitched to a 9.00 earned-run average in his final six starts of the regular season.

“It was really neat, you had no idea … we in the media, going to that game, were wondering – 41 years old, hadn’t pitched in 20 days, and in the previous six times he pitched he had a 9.00 ERA, and yet, he’s a future Hall of Famer, so you had no idea what he was going to give you,” Olney said. “If you gave John Schneider a truth serum, he would probably tell you the same thing.”

Scherzer ran into trouble early, but a double-play ball allowed him to escape the first inning and got the veteran rolling in the right direction.

“Everybody knew this could go south really quickly, and given Scherzer’s recent track record, [Schneider was] going to be aggressive [in potentially bringing in a reliever],” said Olney. “Then we get the double play ball, later he gets the pick-off, his first in nine years, and he navigates his way through and then he’s screaming at his manager coming out to the mound, and I love the video of all the Blue Jays trying to imitate Scherzer and what he was yelling and they’re just laughing at his intensity.

“In the media room after the game when they had to transition from Schneider to Scherzer, Schneider said to Max “come on up here, ya psycho.”

That performance, combined with the 11 hits and eight runs provided by the offence, let the Blue Jays cruise to a second consecutive victory. The offence has now combined for 21 runs and 29 hits over the last two games, compared to four runs and eight hits over the first two.

The improvements from Toronto coincide with a dip in quality from the Mariners as a team over the last two games. Base running mistakes and a quick hook for veteran starting pitcher Luis Castillo left Olney questioning where the Mariners and manager Dan Wilson go from here.

“There’s no question that was an incredibly deflating loss for [the Mariners] because they lost the opportunity to seize the upper hand in this series,” Olney said. “They made a lot of mistakes in that game last night. [Josh] Naylor getting thrown out at third base, which is a cardinal sin in baseball, [Leo Rivas] picked off at first with [MLB home run leader] Cal Raleigh at the plate, and I thought Wilson was way too aggressive.

“He took Castillo out at 48 pitches – and I’m not here to tell you that Castillo was throwing great, he was obviously leaving the ball over the middle of the plate – but 48 pitches was the fewest in Castillo’s 248 starts in the big leagues,” Olney said. “When Wilson went to the mound before he signalled to the bullpen, he’s explaining the decision to Castillo and Castillo has this small, bemused smile on his face, and if you were to have a thought bubble, you might put in there ‘what, are you kidding me?’”

Castillo, 32, is a three-time All-Star and owned a career playoff ERA of 1.40 in five games before Thursday’s loss. He gave the Mariners 7.1 shutout innings against the Blue Jays in the AL Wild-Card Series in 2022.

“After the game, Castillo, who is so good with the media generally, blew it off, he was gone when the media went in there, which spoke volumes to some of the people who cover the team on a regular basis about how he’s feeling about [the decision to go to the bullpen],” said Olney.

“[On top of that, Wilson] brought in Gabe Speier, who’s really his most effective left-hander, he [threw] 32 pitches, the most in any game this season, and he used Matt Brash, their second-best reliever, [who] walks off the mound [after] pitching [when] they’re down four runs in a game they started with leading the series,” Olney said. “None of it makes sense when you look at it from 30,000 feet. I feel like Wilson, by being aggressive, kind of backed himself into a corner.”

The Mariners can’t be counted out quite yet, in an unpredictable series in which the road team has won every game so far. Olney thinks that if the Mariners are to have any chance to reclaim momentum, their bats need to deliver in a big way.

Seattle finished third in the majors with home runs in the regular season (238), and belted four home runs that accounted for nine runs scored in wins in the first two games.

“Tonight what I really think needs to happen is that the big boys in the Seattle lineup – Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Eugenio Suarez – those guys have to do damage tonight, they have to give the Mariners a lead and put them into a good position,” Olney said. “I just don’t know if they’re going to be able to do that, and I don’t know if you can slow down the Toronto bats.”