TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman isn\u2019t worried about facing the high-priced Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of guys making a lot of money, too,\u201d a beer-soaked Gausman said after Toronto won its first pennant in 32 years by beating the Seattle Mariners 4-3 on Monday night in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s two really good teams. It\u2019s going to be some really good baseball,\u201d Gausman said. \u201cA lot of big names, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s for sure. But then again, Gausman is right that it\u2019s not only the defending champion Dodgers who boast some sizeable salaries. The veteran right-hander is paid $23 million a year, making him one of four Blue Jays players earning more than $20 million a season. Also in that group are Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($28 million), George Springer ($25 million) and Chris Bassitt ($22 million). <\/p>\n
Another six Toronto players earn more than $10 million a year, led by Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos\u2019 $19 million annual salary.<\/p>\n
Toronto\u2019s opening-day payroll of $239,242,531 ranked fifth in baseball. The Dodgers ($319,537,290) were second to the Mets.<\/p>\n
Of course, while the Blue Jays may have big earners, they haven\u2019t won any postseason hardware since claiming back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and \u201993. They know Los Angeles is a star-studded team with an October track record lately that speaks for itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get to where you want to go, you\u2019ve got to beat the best,\u201d Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of facing the Dodgers, who took two of three against Toronto during the regular season. \u201cWhether it\u2019s talent, payroll, whatever you want to call it, man, they\u2019re a damn good team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schneider and the AL East champion Blue Jays will have home-field advantage and open the World Series at home Friday night because they finished the regular season with 94 wins, one more than the NL West champion Dodgers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a powerhouse,\u201d Toronto outfielder Nathan Lukes said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been known to do it over and over again, but we\u2019re not scared of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays have made it this far in the playoffs without shortstop Bo Bichette. The two-time AL hits leader and two-time All-Star hasn\u2019t played since he sprained his left knee in a Sept. 6 collision with New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells.<\/p>\n
Bichette, who has been testing his knee by hitting and running for several days, said after Monday night\u2019s ALCS win that he expects to play when the World Series gets underway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be ready,\u201d Bichette vowed.<\/p>\n
Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won ALCS MVP honors after batting .385 with three doubles and three home runs against Seattle. He has six homers and 12 RBIs this postseason and has struck out just three times.<\/p>\n
Guerrero was tearful after the Blue Jays wrapped up their one-run win over the Mariners, but said he\u2019s eager for the matchup with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know they have great players,\u201d Guerrero said through a translator. \u201cSo do we. But it\u2019s on the field where everything matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n
Ian Harrison, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman isn\u2019t worried about facing the high-priced Los Angeles Dodgers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-229295","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\/229295","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=229295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}