Game on, and on to Game 4.
The Toronto Blue Jays rocked George Kirby and the Mariners, 13-4, in Game 3 on Wednesday night, silencing a sold-out Seattle crowd and climbing back into this best-of-seven American League Championship Series in emphatic fashion.
Party-like vibes had taken over T-Mobile Park early Wednesday evening, after Julio Rodríguez launched a two-run first-inning home run that emboldened the 46,471 in attendance into believing the Mariners were on their way to extending their two-games-to-none lead coming back from Toronto.
Instead, the Blue Jays’ offense burst through, belatedly, for the first time in this series, exploding for 12 unanswered runs and putting a dent in what had looked like bulletproof armor on the Mariners’ pitching.
At least Humpy won again, eh?
The Mariners will turn to Luis Castillo in Game 4 on Thursday night to try to reestablish control of this series.
Max Scherzer, the 41-year-old future Hall of Fame right-hander, is scheduled to make his Blue Jays postseason debut Thursday.
At just about the worst time, Kirby had his worst start of the season, allowing a season-high eight earned runs on eight hits, with two walks, four strikeouts and three homers allowed.
Early on, the Blue Jays’ aggressive approach played into the hands of Kirby, who breezed through the first two innings on just 24 pitches.
The Blue Jays busted out with five runs in the third inning to take a 5-2 lead. Four of their five hits in the inning had an exit velocity of 103 mph or greater.
Andrés Giménez, the Blue Jays’ No. 9 hitter, hit a two-run homer to tie the score at 2-2.
After Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled off the top of the wall in left field to put runners at second and third, Kirby walked Alejandro Kirk on five pitches to load the bases.
The go-ahead run scored on a swing-and-miss wild pitch, scoring Nathan Lukes from third base, and Daulton Varsho followed with a 110-mph double off the top of the wall in right field to drive in two.
With two outs in the fourth inning, George Springer ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Kirby, that leaked over the heart of the plate, and sent it 431 feet over the wall in center field to make it 6-2.
In the fifth inning, Guerrero hit a first-pitch slider over the wall in center field, just over the leap of Rodríguez, to make it 7-2.
Alejandro Kirk provided the finishing blow with a three-run homer in the sixth inning off Caleb Ferguson to make it 12-2.
Mariners pitchers had held the Blue Jays to just four combined runs in Toronto in winning the first two games of the series.
Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning for the Mariners to momentarily reenergize the home crowd.