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'Not over until it's over': Toronto Blue Jays' spirits still high despite deficit

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Oct 15 2025, 4:58 pm
'Not over until it's over': Toronto Blue Jays' spirits still high despite deficit
Dan Hamilton/Imagn Images

The Toronto Blue Jays are ready to start throwing punches.

Metaphorically, at least.

With a 2-0 deficit to the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championship Series, it might be their only option.

“I think it factors in when your backs are up against the wall, and there’s only one way out, and that’s to start throwing punches. I think that’s exactly the type of group that we have in the clubhouse. Yeah, I’m looking forward to the way that we respond,” Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman told the media Tuesday in Seattle.

While the four-game American League Division Series victory over the New York Yankees will be one Jays fans will cherish forever, they’ve been wholly overmatched in two games against the Mariners. At the Rogers Centre, Toronto was outscored 13-4, including a blowout 10-3 Game 2 loss that was all kinds of historically bad.

But for Game 3 starter Shane Bieber, aggression seems to be the only way out of the hole for the Blue Jays.

“You’ve always got to be on your toes, and I think as a starting pitcher and just as a pitching staff, we’ve got to continue to be the aggressors and not give them too much credit but go out there and pitch our game,” Bieber said Sunday in Toronto.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider lauded his team’s mental strength in the face of adversity.

“It’s really, really impressive how they kind of just turn the page to the next day, not thinking about Game 1 or Game 2, not thinking about the flight. Thinking about what they needed to do today. They will be ready to do it,” Schneider told the media in Seattle on Tuesday. “I know it sounds like a broken record, and it sounds really cliché, but I think that they do a really good job of living in the present moment. We talk about it a lot. They have had to do it a lot.”

First pitch for Game 3 goes Wednesday night at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, 5:08 p.m. PT/8:08 p.m. ET.

“I think the guys are going to come out knowing exactly what they have to do. Not that we didn’t the first two games, but it’s a seven-game series,” Schneider added.

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