The Toronto Blue Jays are in the midst of a storybook season. The impossible feels more possible with each passing day. With the club getting ready to put the finishing touches on the 2025 season, it’s worth taking a step back and comprehending exactly what this franchise has accomplished in such a short period of time.
Mostly, it’s been a ridiculous offensive juggernaut that has powered a group of believers to within one game of a World Series championship. The Blue Jays are scoring a boatload of runs! More to the point, the Blue Jays have battered and bruised some of the baseball’s best starting pitchers.
The Blue Jays have feasted on postseason starting pitching
Imagine how demoralizing that must be for an opponent when you chase a starting pitcher at such an early juncture of the game. According to Paul Hembekides at ESPN, the Yankees, Mariners, and Dodgers starters have a collective 6.66 ERA against the Blue Jays this postseason (54 ER in 73 IP). That ERA is right on par with the Colorado Rockies starting rotation this past season (6.65 ERA).
Rockies starting pitchers: 6.65 ERA in 2025 — highest by any rotation since earned runs became official in 1913.
Yankees/Mariners/Dodgers starters vs Blue Jays this postseason: 6.66 ERA (54 ER in 73 IP).pic.twitter.com/k3oPlDPrLi
— Paul Hembekides (Hembo) (@PaulHembo) October 30, 2025
The postseason is all about good starting pitching. The days of facing a pitching staff like the Rockies are long gone. Still, the Blue Jays certainly handled their business in a series against that inferior team. The Blue Jays are using their high-contact, low-whiff approach to fluster starting pitchers.
Think back to the Yankees series and how Toronto ambushed Max Fried, an All-Star who posted a 2.86 ERA in 2025. They knocked him around for seven earned runs. Or the Mariners series in which they handed starter George Kirby his worst career outing. Kirby allowed eight earned runs including three home runs. All of that damage came in four innings as the Blue Jays eventually posted an insane 18 hits in a bludgeoning performance.
The style and fashion in which the Blue Jays attacked Fried were emblematic of their offensive approach this whole season. Credit must be given to the hitting coaches.
Blake Snell is another pitcher that the Blue Jays made look silly when it mattered most. In Game 1 of the World Series, the Blue Jays plan was to chase the starting pitcher so that they could take their swings off a brutal Dodgers bullpen. Mission accomplished.
29 pitches were thrown in the first inning of that game, and an especially long at-bat against Daulton Varsho ended with a fly-out to center with zero runs scored. Going forward, the Blue Jays need to capitalize on those situations early in the game. Even after Snell made adjustments and pitched again in Game 5, the Blue Jays stunned everyone with back-to-back home runs to open the game.
OH MY GOODNESS 🤯
VLADIMIR GUERRERO JR. GOES BACK-TO-BACK pic.twitter.com/YcRe3bvRVY
— MLB (@MLB) October 30, 2025
These moments all speak to a larger story. They demonstrate that the Blue Jays have a good chance of beating anyone, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yamamoto silenced them in his first start even though the Blue Jays had an early scoring opportunity that they needed to take advantage of.
Once again, it must be mentioned how the Blue Jays are doing all of this without the individual they signed that was expected to provide massive production in the middle of their lineup. Oh, and they were missing shortstop Bo Bichette until the World Series began. How about doing this with George Springer probably playing through a million little injuries?
Baseball is a funny thing and the Blue Jays used to struggle offensively. Expecting them to hit any kind of starting pitching would have been a dream. They are now blistering some of the best starting pitchers in the game.
