TORONTO — They kept saying they wouldn’t be intimidated.
They refused to fear the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers.
They may be playing north of the border, and few folks in Southern California have ever heard of any of them – with the exception of the few with famous fathers – but, oh, can the Toronto Blue Jays play.
They absolutely walloped the powerful Dodgers, 11-4, in Game 1 of the World Series, sending 44,353 fans at the Rogers Centre partying into the streets.
Oh sure, the World Series is just getting started, but the Jays let the baseball world know that unlike the prior three teams in the Dodgers’ path, they won’t be pushovers.
“There’s a reason we are here and there’s a reason they’re there,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I think the one thing we cannot do is look over there and say that is Goliath.
“That is a beatable baseball team that has its flaws, and that has its really, really good strengths.”
The Dodgers, who had gone 8-1 in the first three rounds of the postseason with their starting rotation snuffing out every offense, suddenly showed vulnerability, with their bullpen showing their cracks.
It was the third-most runs scored in a single inning in World Seires history, trailing only the 1968 Detroit Tigers and the 1929 Philadelphia Athletics, who scored 10 runs apiece.
They not only showed the weakness of the Dodgers bullpen, but were the first team to get to Blake Snell this postseason. Snell entered the night with a 3-0 record and 0.88 ERA, allowing just six hits and two runs this postseason.
He ended the night giving up eight hits and five earned runs without getting out of the sixth inning.
The bullpen then poured gasoline on the flame after Snell departed, with Addison Barger making history by hitting the first pinch-hit grand slam in a World Seires, followed three batters later by an Alejandro Kirk homer, and the party was on.
The most electrifying inning in Blue Jays’ World Series history:
Walk, single, hit by pitch, single, walk, single, groundout, grand slam, single, fly out, home run, and fly out.
And that, boys and girls, is how you beat the powerful Dodgers.
The only folks not surprised by the offensive ambush is, well, the Jays themselves.
“I feel like we’ve been facing good pitching all year,’’ Schneider said. “Whether it’s the NL West coming in here, NL East, AL East, AL Central, I think that we do a really good job of preparing accordingly. So these big-name guys, big-time stuff, similar to the Yankees, yeah, for sure.
“Similar to a lot of teams that we faced.’’
The Blue Jays knocked them around to the tune of 94 victories and the AL East title, and hit .294 with 21 homers and a .523 slugging percentage in the playoffs entering Friday, so what’s another goliath to fall?
“I’ll put this group of 26 up against anybody,” Schneider said. “And they’re looking forward to taking on what is on paper the best team in baseball, that’s playing really well right now.
“I don’t think they would have it any other way.”
Game 2 is Saturday night.
Buckle up.
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