Toronto Blue Jays fans couldn’t ask for much more from the team on Wednesday, as they smothered the Seattle Mariners 13-4 in Game 3 to cut the series deficit in the American League Championship Series to 2-1.

It was a huge performance all around, and a much-needed bounce back after the team looked overmatched in a 10-3 blowout loss in Game 2 in Toronto.

The offence finally delivered, knocking out 18 hits – five of which were home runs – and 13 runs, a massive improvement over the eight hits and four runs the team managed over the first two games of the series combined.

Veteran Shane Bieber also provided exactly what the team dreamed of when they shipped top pitching Khal Stephen to the Cleveland Guardians at the trade deadline to acquire the former Cy Young winner. Bieber allowed a two-run home run in the first inning but cleaned it up after that, exiting after six innings with just the two runs allowed.

“I’ve said it a lot,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “It’s why you acquire a guy like Shane.”

Bieber was making just his ninth start in the majors since completing his rehab on Tommy John surgery that robbed him of most of the 2024 campaign and half of the 2025 season.

“I remember this time last year, having not thrown the ball for a while. Just thinking, ‘I can’t wait to pitch in big games,’” Bieber said. “Find myself here in the ALCS and was able to do that tonight. Happy with how things are playing out, but we’re still down 2-1, and there’s a lot left to do.”

It’s not often that everything goes right for a team in the playoffs, and expecting it to happen two nights in a row is ambitious. That’s why the attention now shifts to another veteran pitcher in Max Scherzer to keep the momentum going – and this is a spot he has struggled with recently in his career.

There’s no denying that Scherzer is a future Hall of Famer, with three Cy Youngs and two World Series titles under his belt. But at age 41, he is not quite the pitcher he used to be.

In his final six starts of the regular season, Scherzer pitched to a 9.00 earned-run average over 25 innings, and was left off the AL Division Series roster. He admitted his pitching was not up to his standards toward the end of the season, and that he took time to get his body right. Schneider said Sunday that neck pain limited Scherzer at the end of the season.

“I don’t want to sit here and go backwards and blame injuries for any way I pitched,” Scherzer said. “When I take the mound, I take the mound, and I have the attitude [that] I’m going to win no matter what.”

Since delivering a postseason performance for the ages in helping the Washington Nationals win the franchise’s first and only World Series title in 2019, Scherzer has struggled in the playoffs.

In his last eight postseason games, split between the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and Texas Rangers, Scherzer has no wins and and ERA of 5.22.

Home runs have been a big problem for Scherzer in that span, with eight allowed – including four in a disastrous start for the Mets in the NL Wild-Card Series against the San Diego Padres in a 7-1 loss in 2022.

Home runs have also been a problem throughout this year for the veteran of 18 MLB seasons – he has allowed 19 homers in 85 innings pitched, and his home rate of 2.0 allowed per nine innings is his highest mark in his career and almost double his career rate.

The Mariners have punished the Blue Jays almost exclusively with the long ball through three games so far – of the 17 runs scored by Seattle in this series, 13 have been scored on a homer.

Another spot that has proven challenging for Scherzer this year has been the first inning, as detailed below:

InningRuns allowedHome runs allowedERA124712.962100.563723.944523.005432.9268510.29

He has allowed the most runs in the first inning, the most home runs and the highest ERA of any inning pitched this year.

Through the first three games, the Mariners have scored five runs in the first inning, highlighted by home runs with runners on base in Games 2 and 3. Seattle’s top four hitters in the lineup have hit six of the team’s seven home runs so far.

The first inning could prove to be the pivotal inning for Toronto in Game 4. If the veteran Scherzer can deliver a vintage performance, Toronto can get another boost towards evening the series. If the Mariners jump all over Scherzer, which has been a recurring problem this year, Seattle may be on its way to taking a commanding series lead.

Game 4 goes from T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Thursday night.