Laika

I think Gausman has to be the weapon today. He could be the 6 out closer. Bieber - Varland - Gausman = the ideal roadmap. 6, 1, 2. If Bieber cannot give you 6 innings, then Seranthony + Hoffman are in play for the middle innings Schneider should not be scared to use Fluharty or Fisher but he seems to not trust them

Trey Yesavage Huge Nuts Whiff Jesus Double Play God

Hoffman can pitch an inning tomorrow, he's not "burned".

The Mariners can keyhole every reliever Almost need to just use Bassitt and Lauer. Secret weapons?

Game plan: No lineout double plays No once in a generation bases loaded random double plays No 363 foot flyouts stolen from being homers No 340 foot pop fly homers surrendered

Hey, good thing the measurement of truth is not "what is the YouTube crowd saying"

That will be the heady play if this comes up again. Late and close with that Lefty Lane due up. Use Fisher. He might be weirdly platoon resistant? Not really a better option right now... As much as I think the Little decision was fine, if you ask him to do it again you enter into a whole sports psychology thing

Thought about it more and I'm not even mad at JS. I would even say he is being unfairly slammed by everyone. Seranthony is just bad against LHB. Career trend. Hoffman was a disaster most of the year. Varland has been a HR machine and was already used in the game, effectively. Little has the best Stuff+ of all the full season Jays RP. Best FIP and WAR of all Jays full season RP. Yes he walks tons of hitters but at the rates he does you'd really just expect two outs around one walk, before you can go to Hoffman. You can quote his two month ERA or walk rate but that's stupid and those numbers are noisy. The rationale behind using him was sound enough for me. And arguably the best alternative was Fisher, anyway. Not Hoffman or Seranthony. I know the sample is too small but check out Fisher's splits.

At least we aren't Brewers fans. Embarrassed by the Dodgers and now they are "likely to trade Freddie Peralta"

Win two at home and go to the World Series. Not a bad position. Execute. Get lucky. Win

Brendon Little vs Cal Raleigh You can pick any reliever you want and that's what you pick

Why Little why

Cmon now sticks One big hit is all we need

It was all part of the plan. Bryce Trap.

Keys to the game: 1. Nuke Bryce Miller

Bunt King Returns Kinder Falaffle in their again

Careful, if too many of us say that they should get to Bryce Miller, the witches in Seattle will collect enough power to make him unhittable again Last time out he kind of just did a "dumb" thing that worked because Toronto did not expect it and were not able to adjust. I don't think you can pull that trick again. They may not even plan on Miller being in the game long, he might be a bit of a decoy in front of Woo, who knows? Mariners Bryce Miller was terrific in Game 1 of the ALCS (6 IP, 2 H, ER, 3 BB, 3 K). Continuing on the trend of pitchers changing their mixes, Miller threw a bunch of sinkers to right-handed hitters. His righty fastball mix in August and September was 42% four-seam with 22% sinker. In yesterday’s matchup with the Blue Jays, he threw just 15% four-seam and 36% sinker. The fascinating thing here is that the Blue Jays are far and away the best team in MLB in terms of doing damage against sinkers from right-handed pitchers. Their run value is the highest in the sport (by a large margin), and they whiffed at righty sinkers the least in MLB. Their .288 xBA was highest on the pitch, with a 20-point margin to third place. Pure domination against the pitch, mostly driven by the Blue Jays’ “big three” in Guerrero Jr, Springer, and Bichette. Miller didn’t seem to care, and his approach worked. Shoutout to Ben Resnic on X, who I noticed spotted this trend as well (link).

Gausman Yesavage Lauer Berrios Francis? lol Varland? lol Macko lol Tiedemann? lol Bloss (second half lol) They need two MLB starters. Ideally one to slot in as an SP3 and then one more who can bump Berrios/Lauer to SP5/SP6. They also need to pad the depth. Berrios is never opting out. Max Scherzer will retire and I don't have any interest in him one year older. I'd take Bassitt back on a one year deal, if he is willing, but there will be better options out there so he's not on the top of my list.

I wish we could see some kind of OAA or DRS stats from playoff series It seems like Suarez has a missed several plays already that a good 3B makes

Really silly usage of him Too many pitches, they burned him so early in what was a close game, and why the heck did he face Springer

Funny that the replay room just mailed in that challenge and got it wrong

Imagine if Jeff threw strikes all the time? He should try doing that and also the no homers thing is good too good job Jeff now sit down

That's a huge inning for this game and his confidence A lesser reliever might give up a big homer to the top of their lineup and make this a game again

Jeff!