[ALDS GM 4] Blue Jays (Varland) vs Yankees (Schlittler): 10/8/25, 7:08pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Bold move using Varland as the opener here. I don't know if it's the worst idea in the world, but it's certainly ripe for criticism.

[Laika]

They made this plan to use Varland as the opener in game 4 before the series started, and they haven't given themselves any other options on the roster, really (other than Lauer as a normal starter). 

It's definitely suspect after what happened last night and the Yankees are going to be swinging for the fences. 

[ValiantJaysFan]

Fully expecting a game 5. Desperately hope I'm wrong. John Schneider has overmanaged this team into a bad situation in what could have been a slam dunk series.

[Jays24]

So this management saw Varland perform well as an opener one time and thought it was a good idea to trust him in that role for Game 4 of the ALDS.  How did we go from a 6 man rotation with too many good starters to this cluster f***.

Maybe we try batting IKF cleanup because he does well on wednesday night games  at Yankee stadium when the temperature is above 10 degrees.  God forbid we use common sense on some decisions.  

*im still bitter about yesterday

[Angrioter]

Dominguez is better option. Them, Lauer 

[Angrioter]

Yesterday was the big day. I hate Bieber trade as f*** 

[Stangstag]

36 minutes ago, ValiantJaysFan said:

Fully expecting a game 5. Desperately hope I'm wrong. John Schneider has overmanaged this team into a bad situation in what could have been a slam dunk series.

Overmanaged in what way?

The only time i felt he overmanaged so far was game 2, using way to many arms while we were up by a huge amount.

[hanton]

Just now, Angrioter said:

Yesterday was the big day. I hate Bieber trade as f*** 

he never looked right to me, probably needs another season before he's back to his normal

[Jays24]

9 minutes ago, hanton said:

he never looked right to me, probably needs another season before he's back to his normal

I think Bieber in every start has looked bad in 1 inning and has been really good otherwise.  IKF screwed him in the 1st inning so his real bad inning came in the 3rd.  We'll never know if he would have gone onto locking back in since Schneider trusted his bullpen over that yesterday.  

[Laika]

18 minutes ago, hanton said:

he never looked right to me, probably needs another season before he's back to his normal

He was a spin doctor before he got hurt. Now his breaking balls aren't even there. It's not Shane Bieber. 

[Laika]

I still feel good.

Not expecting to win tonight, but there is always a 30% chance in baseball. 

Game 5 Toronto would have the edge. Rogers Centre. A good SP going. 

[Laika]

Series odds:

Toronto 65%
New York 35%

[Rimar]

Stupid idea to use Varland to start the game, especially after he pitched bad yesterday.  But if Rogers hope for a game 5 in the Rogers Center, this can explain it 😄 Lauer should be the SP today, or use Gausman. In past we saw,teams winning the WS using their best pitcher after 3 days rest.  Madison Bumgarner when Giants won the WS did, Clayton Kershaw too.  So using Gausman today and Yesevage if need play game 5, is better idea than use Varland today. Also need to bench IKF, and put Lukes and Straw in the lineup. 

[Terminator]

In addition we would have Yariel, Nance, and Bruihl.

As unlikely as it seems after yesterday, this could work.

Fangraphs gives us a 47.4% chance to win tonight, for what that's worth. I believe that is actually our best odds of any game this series lol.

[Stangstag]

10 minutes ago, Laika said:

Series odds:

Toronto 65%
New York 35%

We like our team Barry

[Stangstag]

Man, my stomach has been in knots all morning. Why do i care so much about this stupid team.

[Jays24]

Just now, Stangstag said:

Man, my stomach has been in knots all morning. Why do i care so much about this stupid team.

I struggled going to sleep because I was thinking about how we blew the game most of the night/morning.  I havent cared to this extent about any team in years. 

Its probably because we were so close to the greatest Jays team moment since 1993.  Beating the Yankees in Yankee stadium would be exactly that. 

[BTS]

7 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

I struggled going to sleep because I was thinking about how we blew the game most of the night/morning.  I havent cared to this extent about any team in years. 

Its probably because we were so close to the greatest Jays team moment since 1993.  Beating the Yankees in Yankee stadium would be exactly that. 

Somebody link this man to a Bautista bat flip video ASAP

[Stangstag]

3 minutes ago, BTS said:

Somebody link this man to a Bautista bat flip video ASAP

Beating the Yankees is better IMO

[Terminator]

Chins up boys

We still got this

[Laika]

21 minutes ago, Rimar said:

Stupid idea to use Varland to start the game, especially after he pitched bad yesterday.  But if Rogers hope for a game 5 in the Rogers Center, this can explain it 😄 Lauer should be the SP today, or use Gausman. In past we saw,teams winning the WS using their best pitcher after 3 days rest.  Madison Bumgarner when Giants won the WS did, Clayton Kershaw too.  So using Gausman today and Yesevage if need play game 5, is better idea than use Varland today. Also need to bench IKF, and put Lukes and Straw in the lineup. 

Gausman has a history of being bad on short rest, or being better with lots of rest. Not the guy I would throw on short rest at all. 

[Laika]

I know it doesn't seem like it today, but the bullpen game is STILL probably a better idea than just rolling out Scherzer, Bassitt, Berrios, or Lauer as a traditional SP. 

Even if Bassitt was on the roster and starting, the correct thing to do is probably to remove him once he starts letting anybody get on base after the first two innings. So it's a bullpen game anyway. 

[Jays24]

8 minutes ago, BTS said:

Somebody link this man to a Bautista bat flip video ASAP

Beating the Yankees to advance to the ALCS means more than beating Texas.  That was the exact moment i thought about looking to beat though :) 

[Jays24]

3 minutes ago, Laika said:

I know it doesn't seem like it today, but the bullpen game is STILL probably a better idea than just rolling out Scherzer, Bassitt, Berrios, or Lauer as a traditional SP. 

Even if Bassitt was on the roster and starting, the correct thing to do is probably to remove him once he starts letting anybody get on base after the first two innings. So it's a bullpen game anyway. 

But he should be added to the roster today just in case we might need those innings if it goes to extras or we run out of arms.  

[glory]

Using Varland for the 4th time in 5 days when I'm pretty sure they knew he was going to be the opener going into the series is strange. Why use him in a blow out in Game 2 then?

Last night's game was lost with IKF in the lineup. Not sure if that was a JS call or FO call, or maybe both, but the Baseball Gods were having none of it (IKF error in the 1st, and then the Barger error later in the game, when both are likely avoided with DS at 2B and Straw in the OF, which is the configuration many wanted to begin with). Unfortunately, a lefty is going in Game 5, so IKF starting in a do or die is a pretty safe bet. 

Win tonight so we don't have to deal with it. I'm not expecting it, I'm actually expecting a laugher for the Yanks unfortunately, but it's baseball, so hopefully baseball happens tonight and the Jays pull it out. 

[Olerud363.354]

38 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

I struggled going to sleep because I was thinking about how we blew the game most of the night/morning.

It was a big deal.  Went from 98% chance of winning series (when up 6-1) to 65% in about an hour.  

Felt like this after game 2 against Kansas city in 2015 when Ryan Goins dropped a popup in a similar situation as last night.  I think in that case Jays chances went from almost 50% of winning series (up 3-0 7th down 1-0 in series) to about 15% in 30 minutes.     Fans are pretty good at sensing the big probability drops, even if not looking at the numbers, so no surprise a lot of people are feeling bad. 

[Alejandro Murphy]

1 hour ago, Stangstag said:

Man, my stomach has been in knots all morning. Why do i care so much about this stupid team.

Haha.

 

the emotional investment from all of us.

 

Let us all throw the good juju towards these Jays from top to bottom…  Varland/ IKF/ Barger and John Schneider included 😉

 

finish the Yankees tonight

 

lets go Blue Jays !

 

[wewlad]

No one expected this team to even be here. They are a very resilient group, all i can do is continue to believe. Lets get this f***ing win boys, nothing would be sweeter than finishing this off in yankee stadium!

[Masterbather]

Well, it's baseball, so I fully expect all those guys that got hit around yesterday to dominate today. 

In all honesty I think there is a lot of rust from our bullpen from having pitched so little over around a 10-day span.

I actually think it will benefit many of them to pitch back to back days.

Of course it still doesn't mean they're necessarily good enough to win. But we'll see. 

Got to get our offense going against Shitter.

[Jays24]

My suggestions for Game 4:

Use Gausman for 3/4 innings, Lauer for 2 innings (away from Judge) and then go based on matchups after that.  

Game 5 (if needed)

Yesavage + Bieber for 1/2 innings (if needed)