TORONTO \u2014 John Schneider isn\u2019t backing down from how he managed the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 bullpen in a devastating 6-2 loss to Seattle in the American League Championship Series on Friday.<\/p>\n
Schneider decided to go with inconsistent relief pitcher Brendon Little against Mariners MVP candidate Cal Raleigh with Toronto holding a narrow 2-1 lead in Game 5 of the best-of-seven playoff series.<\/p>\n
Raleigh homered to tie the game, then Little issued two walks. Seranthony Dominguez came out of the Blue Jays\u2019 bullpen next and he hit Randy Arozarena with a pitch to load the bases then served up a grand slam to Eugenio Suarez to blow the game wide open for Seattle.<\/p>\n
The Mariners hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, a win away from reaching the World Series for the first time.<\/p>\n
After the game Schneider said he trusts Little and Dominguez and he doubled down on that position Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten to the point where we\u2019ve gotten to because of every single guy on our team,\u201d said Schneider in a news conference during optional workouts at Rogers Centre. \u201cI can sit here and say it\u2019s not a mistake, and you guys will all write that I said it\u2019s not a mistake, and I\u2019ll get crushed on social media for saying that. I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued on to explain his thinking of bringing on Little against as tough an out as Raleigh rather than bring on a reliever used to more high leverage situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust my players. I trust my players,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cIn hindsight, I had a couple other options to do. That\u2019s what I decided to do. So, again, I have all the information that I need, and I don\u2019t think I made a mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers have to go perform. There is always risk when you put a player in a situation that he won\u2019t get the job done. That\u2019s part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if closer Jeff Hoffman was available to play on Friday, Schneider gave a terse \u201cHe\u2019s on the roster, yeah.\u201d <\/p>\n
Schneider said that having to ignore past what-if scenarios is part of the job as a manager in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery decision you make that doesn\u2019t work out, I regret. You know what I mean?\u201d said Schneider. \u201cNo matter who it is. Whether it\u2019s a hitter, a pinch-hitter, a pitcher, a starting pitcher, it\u2019s part of the job, you know. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s what-ifs always. You know what I mean? There\u2019s what-ifs always in this game. I think that you learn from \u2018em. You trust your people around you when you are making decisions. You make \u2018em and you move on. That\u2019s where I\u2019m at with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2025.<\/p>\n
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 John Schneider isn\u2019t backing down from how he managed the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 bullpen in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-223406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}