Blue Jays’ Addison Barger celebrates after hitting a double 鈥 one of three on the night 鈥 during the eighth inning against the Mariners on Friday, May 9, 2025, in Seattle.
Blue Jays’ Addison Barger celebrates after hitting a double 鈥 one of three on the night 鈥 during the eighth inning against the Mariners on Friday, May 9, 2025, in Seattle.
The Blue Jays scored early and often, then held on for dear life to beat the Mariners 6-3 in the opener of a three-game series at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Here’s what you need to know:
The Jays scored the first five runs of a game for the first time this season. They jumped on Seattle starter Luis Castillo with a two-run double by Addison Barger in the first inning 鈥 one of his three doubles on the night 鈥 and added three more runs in the third, a two-out rally capped by a two-run homer by Nathan Lukes.
The offence shut down in the middle innings, with 14 of 15 hitters retired at one point, but they survived a white-knuckle eighth from Yimi Garcia before Jeff Hoffman worked a hitless ninth for his eighth save.
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Fastballs
Flashing the leather
The Blue Jays threw their gloves in the ring in a big way, showing why they’ve won baseball’s Team Gold Glove Award two years in a row.
Barger made a great snare of a Julio Rodriguez line drive to end the third inning with a pair of runners aboard and Bo Bichette went way up to haul in a couple of liners that looked destined to be base hits.
The biggest catch of the night was by Daulton Varsho, of course. The centre-fielder climbed the wall to take a home run away from rookie Ben Williamson in the fifth, keeping the score 5-1 at the time.
DAULTON VARSHO, YOU ARE INCREDIBLE 馃槺
鈥 海角社区官网Blue Jays (@BlueJays)
Sneaky Vladdy
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. saved the Jays a run with a heads-up play in the bottom of the sixth.
He snuck in behind Randy Arozarena at first base, planning to have catcher Tyler Heineman make a pickoff throw, but Leody Taveras hit a gapper to left-centre for a double.
Arozarena saw Vladdy moving towards the bag and broke back towards first, leaving him unable to score on the hit. He was left at third as Brendon Little struck out Dylan Moore to end the inning.
The left-hander took over for Kevin Gausman with two on and one out in the sixth and the Jays up 5-2 and retired five of the six batters he faced, striking out three.
The only hit he allowed was the Taveras double.
Mailbag
John Northey found me on Bluesky @wilnerness to ask if, with Garcia struggling so badly lately, “would you keep him in that eighth inning slot or use Chad Green more often there?”
Based on the way Friday’s eighth inning began, with Garcia giving up a leadoff single then issuing back-to-back walks on a total of nine pitches to load the bases with nobody out, I would have said that ol’ Yimbo was probably looking at a stint on the injured list.聽
The right-hander had an ERA of 0.00 over his first 14 appearances, but then had back-to-back blown saves, including giving up a two-out grand slam to Cleveland’s Daniel Schneeman in the ninth inning on May 3. His ERA over those two outings was 63.00 and looking to get worse Friday.聽
But Garcia pitched out of the jam he pitched himself into, getting a force at the plate and then striking out a pair to emerge unscathed. Maybe he’s getting his mojo back, but I agree that a close eye still needs to be kept on him.
Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star
and host of the baseball podcast 鈥淒eep Left Field.鈥 Follow him on
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