The proof has been everywhere in the subject for the Toronto Blue Jays this season. Regardless of not having essentially the most eye-popping names up and down their lineup, they entered October because the No. 1 seed within the American League and now have a stranglehold on the defending AL champions within the division sequence.
How have the AL East champion Blue Jays performed all of it season? The reply is easy:
They’ve been having enjoyable.
“Yeah, I feel like we have a bunch of just young dudes at heart,” mentioned Blue Jays outfielder Davis Schneider earlier than Recreation 3 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium. “We have now numerous outdated heads, even George [Springer]. George is 36, however he acts like he’s 12, which is nice. You need a chief that leads by instance but additionally discover ways to have enjoyable. He does that too.
“Even Vlady. He’s only 26, but he acts like he’s been here 20 years, which is what you want as a leader too. Everyone is on the same page of having fun, and whatever happens happens out on the field.”
The Jays are outfitted with super expertise on the prime with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette (who’s off the ALDS roster with a knee damage) and MVP-candidate George Springer after his re-emergent 2025. The crew ranked third in OPS and earned a little bit of a scrappy identification all through the season.
That identification has its chief feeling like he’s watching one other version of a basic baseball film.
“I think [the team was always having fun], but you kind of saw it unfold over the course of the season, where you can grasp onto any narrative that is out there, right?,” mentioned supervisor John Schneider. “However I feel that that’s been obvious for some time now. That’s been obvious that’s what they’re doing for some time now.
“I joked with [bench coach] Donny [Mattingly] and [pitching coach] Pete [Walker], sometimes it feels like the movie ‘The Sandlot,’ they’re just coming in playing. I think if you can embrace that, it’s pretty cool, because ultimately, if you want to get to where you want to get to, it’s just going to get more and more magnified and more and more tense. It’s been like that for a while with this group, which is pretty cool.”
Toronto, particularly, has had numerous enjoyable enjoying in opposition to the Yankees. They walked into the Bronx holding a commanding 2-0 sequence lead on Tuesday evening within the best-of-five ALDS after dominating them for many of their common season matchups, going 8-5 of their 13 video games.
Whereas they might not have the star energy of the Aaron Decide-led Yankees, the Blue Jays have proven precisely why they’re on this place.
