It was predictable, but the relief team sinks the Blue Jays

The Seattle Mariners completely dominated the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in the first two games of the American League Championship Series and now have a 2-0 lead before returning home with a World Series appearance at stake.

The Blue Jays' bats have certainly been cold as ice, but the main weakness Seattle has exploited is undoubtedly the Toronto relief bullpen.

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1978062256316281145

Indeed, despite the fact that Kevin Gausman pitched nearly six innings in the first game of the series, the Jays still had to use five relievers to finish the game. Two gunners were able to finish an inning without allowing a run – Jeff Hoffman and Louis Varland – but they were the only ones.

And that was nothing compared to the second duel of the series. Trey Yesavage didn't get off to a good start, as he had against the New York Yankees, and six more relievers had to come out of the bullpen.

Varland first took the mound with two runners on and no outs, and gave up a three-run home run to Jorge Polanco when the score was tied 3-3.

Later, Yariel Rodriguez was unable to get a single out, while allowing three bases on balls, which put Chris Bassitt in a precarious situation, pitching for the first time in a month, but he pulled through.

The latter, along with Eric Lauer, were the only bright spots on the pitching staff in game two as they recorded the final eight outs with a combined total of four strikeouts and just one hit allowed. But, at that point, the Jays were already behind by seven runs, so that's not saying much.

There's no sign on the horizon that things will change in the next few games, and barring a very long outing from Shane Bieber tomorrow (Wednesday), things will be very complicated.

Especially as Max Scherzer is likely to start game number four.

This content was created with the help of AI.