The Toronto Blue Jays’ season is on the line after losing the first two games of the ALCS to the Seattle Mariners. The championship series was supposed to be close, but Seattle has taken control, winning Game 2 10-3 after winning Game 1. The Mariners’ offense, led by Jorge Polanco’s clutch home run, has blown away the Blue Jays, who don’t appear to be the disciplined team that won the AL East title.

When the series moves to Seattle for Game 3 on Wednesday, Toronto will have one last chance to make things right. Their offense has been struggling lately, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Daulton Varsho, Andres Gimenez, and Davis Schneider are all still looking for their first hits of the series.

ESPN insider Jeff Passan found the main problem with Toronto’s offense. “The lack of competitive at-bats from the Blue Jays,” Passan noted, highlighting how the team abandoned its identity. “Yes, the Mariners’ pitching is very good. But the Blue Jays — whose high-quality, work-the-count, spoil-pitches approach all season helped deliver them an AL East championship — were practically tweaking to swing at Miller’s pitches in Game 1 and weren’t much better in Game 2.” The warning goes beyond batting issues.

Passan said that Toronto can’t rely on slugfests against Seattle because their pitching is still too strong. Instead, the Blue Jays need to beat the Mariners at their own game with strong starting pitching.

The Mariners won Game 1 by a score of 3-1 and then attacked in Game 2, beating the Blue Jays by 10-3. It was exactly what Passan said would happen in the second game: Seattle’s offense was on fire. Julio Rodríguez hit a home run that brought in three runs, Jorge Polanco’s brought in three more, and Josh Naylor hit another homer for two runs. The barrage left the Toronto pitchers looking for answers, and the Mariners were only two wins away from appearing in their first World Series.

In Game 3, Shane Bieber pitches, and in Game 4, Max Scherzer pitches.

Scherzer, who is 41 years old and has won the Cy Young three times, will make his first postseason start since 2023 after not being picked for the ALDS roster because he gave up 17 earned runs in four starts in September. His regular-season stats show a 5-5 record and a 5.19 ERA, but his postseason stats show a different story.

Mad Max has pitched 143 innings in the playoffs and has a 3.78 ERA and 171 strikeouts. The Blue Jays’ season depends on whether their experienced pitchers can come through when it matters most.

And talking about Bieber, his only playoff appearance so far was during the Jays’ 9-6 win against the Yankees. In 2 2/3 innings, he allowed five hits while striking out two. For Game 3, his SO total sits at 4.5 on FanDuel.

But Toronto’s season won’t be saved by strong pitching alone. The offense that was quiet for two games needs to wake up right away.

Blue Jays banking on Santander to solve George Kirby problem

Toronto Blue Jays’ pitching is mostly made up of veterans, but their offense needs to figure out a problem right away at T-Mobile Park. The Blue Jays will play George Kirby on Wednesday night. He is a right-handed pitcher who might be hard for the Blue Jays to beat. But history shows that Anthony Santander might be the key to breaking down Seattle’s pitching wall.

Santander has beaten Kirby in their last few matches. The outfielder has a .400 batting average against the Mariners’ starter and has hit two home runs in 15 career at-bats. That kind of dominance is just what the Toronto offense needs to wake up right now.

To top off the hopes, he was part of the Jays’ only scoring opportunity in Game 1. While he missed Game 2 due to lower back tightness, the skipper informed that he is “feeling better today” on Tuesday and might be available as a DH or in the outfield on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in his last two playoff games, Kirby has given up only three runs in ten innings and struck out 14 batters. His control is even better. Kirby only walks 5.5% of the time, which puts him in the 89th percentile across all of baseball. That level of accuracy takes away the deep counts that Toronto loves, turning every at-bat into a fight.

The Blue Jays need to get back to the patient style of play that helped them win the championship. The wild, free-swinging action of Games 1 and 2 can’t go on. The Blue Jays need to make good contact with Kirby’s fastballs and attack them early in the count. The talent is still there, but how well they play will decide whether their postseason goes on.