The gruelling 18-inning defeat, less than 18 hours prior, held nothing against a rather young Toronto squad in Game 4. On the back of  Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s homer and Shane Bieber’s solid start, they would carve themselves a 4-run lead by the bottom of the 9th. Even then, with two outs on board, Louis Varland wasn’t risking it.

Just before the final out, the Blue Jays’ reliever kept stepping off, resulting in a balk. When asked about it, manager John Schneider admitted that it was intentional.

“I mean, it’s fair game. And we highly suspected that there was relaying, you know, which is fine. But just didn’t want to have the hitter know what was coming,” MLB insider Ben Nicholson-Smith quoted Schneider.

With Enrique Hernández at bat and Max Muncy at second base, Varland chose to disengage three consecutive times. A pitcher is allowed to disengage legally only twice. So when he repeated it for the third time, Muncy was moved to third base. The Blue Jays decided upon it to avoid any relaying of signs.

When a runner is on second base, he may not hear the pitch calls that are delivered via the pitcher’s headset, but he is in a position to see the catcher’s setup and possibly even the glove grip. Third base doesn’t offer that advantage.

For what it’s worth, MLB allows players from second base to steal signs and convey them to the hitter. It is legal as long as it is being practiced manually, without any involvement of technology. The runner could either get it right or just mess with the pitcher. But Toronto was not risking giving away any advantage with Hernández, who has 11 hits in 36 at-bats leading up to the World Series.

While still a guesswork, it might as well have worked in Toronto’s favor. With a 4-run lead already in place, Varland ensured there were no hits coming from Hernández. One that did come, ended up in a line out, drawing the inning to a close, and pushing the Blue Jays to even the series.

The Blue Jays’ hitting stats would make anyone accuse them of cheating

“Toronto suddenly forgot how to hit a baseball. Which makes me think they were probably cheating against the Yankees and stealing signs,” Craig Carton said after the Blue Jays knocked New York out of the playoffs. And his comment came as many pointed to the Jays’ explosive offensive numbers as a reason for suspicion.

Reportedly, the Jays ranked fourth in MLB during the regular season with a 112 wRC+, but they’ve turned it up a notch in the postseason, posting an MLB-best 128 wRC+. This defines how the Blue Jays have transformed since they were in the postseason this year. They’ve already scored 100 runs, just one shy of the all-time playoff record, and they’re only one home run away from the non-2020 postseason record.

Simply put, this lineup has looked like one of the most dangerous World Series-hitting teams ever.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a team that didn’t look like a contender early in the season. If you remember, by April 29, the Jays were 13–16 and under .500. But from that point on, they caught fire, racking up 81 wins, more than any team in baseball besides the Brewers.

So it’s no surprise some insiders are raising eyebrows over how consistently the Blue Jays’ bats have been producing. Now, with Toronto just one win away from a World Series title, the question is whether they can silence the noise, push past the allegations, and let their offense do the talking one last time.