Blue Jays: John Schneider mismanaged his way to Game 5 ALCS loss

With Cal Raleigh, Jorge Polanco, and Josh Naylor up, Schneider decided to go to left-hander Brandon Little after Kevin Gausman and Louis Varland allowed just one earned run through the previous seven innings of work. Credit to Little, he has been an absolute workhorse this season for Toronto (led the American League in appearances), but he’s really struggled to find the strike zone at times, and the Jays needed someone who could overpower the Mariners’ bats.

Little had allowed a hit in each of his four previous postseason outings and had walked two batters while working with his fastball/knuckle-curve combo, and again, there were times when Little was spiking the curveball so far in front of home plate that you got that uneasy feeling when he entered the game. Fans were commenting about the move before he threw one pitch to Raleigh, and at the end of the day, he shouldn’t have been in this situation.

Raleigh sent a shot over the left field wall to tie the game, and by the time Little was out of the game, Polanco and Naylor were on second and first with zero outs on the board. Seranthony Dominguez hit Randy Arozarena, and Eugenio Suarez belted a grand slam to the opposite wall to put the game on ice. A 2-1 lead turned into a 6-2 deficit, and the Jays couldn’t muster the strength to mount a comeback in the top of the ninth.

For Schneider, the reasoning to turn to Little is laughable: “Wanted that part of the lineup to see different guys, we talked about it all series… Little’s been one of our best pitchers in big spots. Tough guy to elevate, Cal’s a really good hitter.”

Yes, Little has had strong moments, especially early in the season, but when the top bats for the Mariners are coming up in a tight game in the postseason, you need to bring your best arms into the matchup – Jeff Hoffman, Dominguez with a clean inning; hell, even Eric Lauer would have been a better option in this spot given his work this year. This was a tough spot to put Little in, and ultimately, the big guns in the bullpen needed to take this moment head-on. Even if Hoffman comes in and blows the game up in a similar fashion, the move at least makes sense – Hoffman is paid the big bucks to pitch in these moments, and this conversation is completely different.

This was an eerily similar situation to the AL Wild Card series back in 2022 against the Mariners. When the Jays wanted to flip Carlos Santana over by bringing in Tim Mayza following Gausman’s work to the sixth inning, Mayza uncorked a wild pitch to score a run before Santana smashed a home run over the left field wall to score three more runs, making it an 8-5 game that the Jays eventually ended up losing, all because they made an ill-timed pitching move to move Santana from the left-side of the batter’s box to the right.

I do want to give credit where it is due to Little. He faced the media after the game and said his piece, and that takes absolute heart to do after going through that moment. Fans shouldn’t be holding Little to this – this wasn’t the situation he should have been put in, and this is not a ‘hindsight after the situation’ type of moment.

At the end of the day, this was a poor move from John Schneider. The analytics didn’t support bringing Little in this situation; the eye test from the series and his outings didn’t support this decision, a relatively rested Hoffman (threw 12 pitches the day before) and Dominguez were ready to go for these situations, and other left-handed relievers to turn to instead of Little.

This decision to go to Little doesn’t pass the sniff test, and the Blue Jays’ World Series hopes are now on the line because of it. This was a winnable game, and the loss is squarely on manager John Schneider and his poor pitching management late in last night’s game.