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<\/p>\nBieber was shut down by the Guardians after two starts in 2024 when they announced he needed surgery to repair his ulnar collateral ligament. He was traded to Toronto on July 31 of this year for pitching prospect Khal Stephen before he had completely recovered from the operation.<\/p>\n
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The Blue Jays activated him from the injured list on Aug. 22, striking out nine and earning the win as Toronto beat the Miami Marlins 5-2. Since then, the two-time all-star and the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner has been called on in some of the Blue Jays\u2019 biggest games of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how many starts I\u2019m at right now, but that\u2019s how it\u2019s felt every start, right?\u201d joked Bieber after Toronto beat the Mariners 6-2 on Sunday to force the decisive Game 7.<\/p>\n
Bieber actually had seven starts for Toronto in the regular season, finishing with a 4-2 record, a 3.57 earned-run average and 37 strikeouts over 40 1\/3 innings. <\/p>\n
He had an abbreviated appearance against the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALDS on Oct. 7, allowing three runs \u2014 two earned \u2014 over 2 2\/3 innings as the Blue Jays went on to lose 9-6. <\/p>\n
Bieber bounced back with a command performance in Game 3 of the ALCS, striking out eight over six innings. He allowed two runs on four hits and a walk as the Blue Jays earned a critical 13-4 win in Seattle. <\/p>\n
He said he learned to just be himself in that start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I have numerous ways to attack guys and to get guys out,\u201d said Bieber. \u201cAs long as I go out there and execute, I think I\u2019ll put the team in a good position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto manager John Schneider said Bieber is the ideal pitcher for high-leverage situations like a do-or-die game to reach the World Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you get into this situation \u2014 historical game for the franchise, right? \u2014 you want a guy that\u2019s kind of been there,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cYou want a guy that has a super high sense of awareness in the moment. That\u2019s exactly why we traded for him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI said it before, it was kind of a quiet, I don\u2019t want to say quiet acquisition at the deadline, because he was hurt, but this is what we envisioned.\u201d<\/p>\n
George Kirby will take the mound for the Mariners, who are trying to reach the World Series for the first time in the franchise\u2019s history. Seattle entered the league in 1977 along with the Blue Jays but Toronto has won MLB\u2019s championship twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love pitching under pressure and super glad I\u2019m able to get Game 7,\u201d said Kirby, who pitched opposite Bieber in Game 3 and allowed eight runs over four innings in the loss.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2025.<\/p>\n
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bieber was shut down by the Guardians after two starts in 2024 when they announced he needed surgery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-226970","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\/226970","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=226970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}