Jeff Brohm is home at Louisville, and he can’t afford to fail now
-
David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It was the spring of 2022, and despite how his words sounded when replayed on the local news later, Jeff Brohm was just trying to be polite.
Brohm was back in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, speaking to 100 or so alums of Flaget High School — “Where Paul Hornung, Howard Schnellenberger and my dad went,” Brohm noted. He spent the better part of an hour talking football before he got the question — the one he always seemed to get.
“When are you coming back to coach at Louisville?”
Brohm was Kentucky’s “Mr. Football” in 1988, then became a star quarterback at Louisville. He worked as an assistant for the Cardinals under Bobby Petrino for six seasons, too, before moving on to head coaching jobs at Western Kentucky and Purdue. He was offered the head job at Louisville after Petrino was fired in 2019, but he demurred — “Bad timing,” he said — and for the next four years, Cardinals fans longed for a second chance to bring Brohm home.
And so the question came again — this time from a nice gentleman — and Brohm didn’t want to be rude.
“I love this town,” Brohm said. “I’m an alumnus of Louisville. So, anything can happen in the future.”
Now, he might’ve offered a few important caveats before answering — like the fact that Louisville already had a coach and that Brohm already had another job. But the event had been so lighthearted that, truly, Brohm didn’t give his reply much thought. Nor did he think about the reporter with the camera.
“I talked for an hour and 10 minutes and it was the only time I referenced Louisville,” Brohm recalled. “And that’s all I heard about after.”
Brohm insisted he wasn’t insulting Purdue, and he wasn’t angling for the Louisville job. It was a lot of hubbub over nothing. Really.
“And then sure enough,” Brohm said, “it actually happened a year later.”
Yes, Brohm is finally back in his hometown, coaching at his alma mater, much to the delight of the innumerable fans who’d pined for his homecoming for years. When Satterfield left for Cincinnati at the end of last season, Brohm was offered the job again, and this time, it all felt right.
Of course, those dream jobs always feel magical at first, yet it doesn’t always turn out to be such a happy reunion. For every Steve Spurrier or Kirby Smart, who went home and won a national title, there are others, like Scott Frost, who withered under the outsized expectations.
When it doesn’t work out, it’s not just a job that’s lost.
“When you’re coaching somewhere else, you put in the work, but if it doesn’t work out, hey, I can always go home,” Brohm said. “Well, this is home.”
It’s something Brohm said he thinks about nearly every day now. After years of anticipation, he finally has the job he always wanted. He can’t afford to fail.
BROHM ARRIVED TO immense fanfare in Louisville, but he also saw a ticking clock. Everyone loved him the day he was hired because he’d done so much for the city and the school over the years, but eventually, there would be real data points on his job performance, and he can’t afford a misstep.
“All the positivity now is because we haven’t lost a game yet,” Brohm said. “I’ve been around some good days here, and there’s been tremendous fan support at all levels when you’re doing great things. We want to get that going as fast as we can.”
It’s the same balance Mario Cristobal understood when he opted to leave a cozy gig at Oregon to return to Miami with a plan to resurrect his alma mater. The problem, as he saw it, was a massive schism between the size of the job and the optimism of Miami’s fans.
“The clear fact, the fact that’s as clear as the day is long, is Miami didn’t get to this spot overnight,” Cristobal said, “and Miami isn’t getting out of this spot overnight.”
That’s Cristobal’s tagline for the program in Year 2. But when he first arrived, the fan base was so overjoyed at the thought that their prodigal son, who’d won two national titles at Miami as a player, would restore the program’s past glory that there wasn’t much room for the cold, hard truth.
The Hurricanes finished 2022 with a 5-7 record with embarrassing losses to Middle Tennessee and rival Florida State. After the season, a sizable chunk of Cristobal’s first staff departed, as did a number of players. The excitement that followed his arrival in Coral Gables had quickly turned into skepticism.
Cristobal saw most of it coming, the inevitable struggles, and it nearly convinced him to stay at Oregon.
The hours, the pressure, the expectations, he thrives on that, he said, but he knew it would take its toll on his family. It was a big risk.
But it was home.
“I don’t want to go to the grave without Miami winning,” Cristobal said. “I don’t. I would’ve had a lot of regret. I know if I’d said no, the ship would’ve sailed, and the next time it came around, it might’ve been too late.”
It’s the double-edged sword of being a program’s favorite son. The often sizable challenges of the present are viewed through the glories of past success, and when reality sets in, things can get ugly.
Dave Wannstedt had won Super Bowls in the NFL, so he seemed like an ideal hire at Pitt, where he’d starred as a player. Six years later, he was fired after a 7-5 campaign.
Jim Harbaugh has taken Michigan to back-to-back College Football Playoffs, but that success came on the heels of a dismal 2020 campaign that forced him to take a pay cut. That Michigan didn’t fire him rankled a sizable contingent of Wolverines fans who’d once celebrated his return.
Frost was supposed to be the miracle that returned Nebraska to greatness. He’d coached UCF to an undefeated season in 2017, and he had his pick of plumb jobs in the aftermath. But he wanted to go home, to a place where he’d quarterbacked the Huskers to a 24-2 record in two seasons. His coaching tenure there ended after an embarrassing home loss to Georgia Southern that dropped his record at Nebraska to 16-31.
So yes, Brohm isn’t assuming he has an inch of runway at Louisville.
“When you take a little more pride in what you’re doing, it makes you work a little harder, take a little more time figuring it out so you don’t let people down,” Brohm said. “There are a lot of guys on our staff with local connections, and they want to win here, and they want to win now.”
JOSH HEIRD INSISTS he had more than one candidate for the job after Satterfield departed for Cincinnati. Yes, Brohm was at the top of the list — but not just because of his local ties. He was a heck of a coach, had just led Purdue to the Big Ten title game, had been to seven bowl games in nine years as a head coach.
Of course, Heird also admits it would’ve been a problem if he’d gone in another direction.
“If it wasn’t Jeff,” Heird said, “whoever it was would be compared to Jeff from Day 1.”
Heird actually joked at Brohm’s introductory news conference that “for the last 12 months, you’ve made my life miserable.” Yeah, there was a bit of pressure to get the prodigal son back onto campus.
Heck, Louisville defensive lineman Ashton Gillotte had started following a Twitter account with the handle, @BringBrohmHome. The account’s owner has a website, too, with flight tracker data and video of Brohm’s playing days. The account’s bio now notes the success of the initiative: “Destiny typed into existence.”
The Brohm effect has Louisville as excited for the 2023 season as fans have been for any year since Lamar Jackson was on campus, with season ticket sales already up more than 20%. Running back Jawhar Jordan said he gets approached at the grocery store now by fans wanting to talk about the team.
“There’s constant people,” Brohm said. “There’s more speaking functions and going out in the community and it’s all important to do that.”
That’s largely meant his wife and kids have enjoyed the perks of being back in Louisville. Brohm’s been on the clock since the moment he accepted the job.
“I tell them I’m glad they’re having fun,” Brohm said. “I’m working my ass off here.”
If it’s time-consuming, Brohm has at least been met with something akin to a red carpet at local high schools, booster club meetings and fan fests. These people know him, and that brings instant cache. That’s the real value of coming home. There’s no sales pitch needed to convince fans to get excited or donors to write a big check or the administration to buy-in on a plan to get better.
Spurrier remembers arriving at Florida in 1990 to a far less optimistic welcome. The Gators had finished 7-5 the year before — and had actually lost at least five games in four straight seasons before he took the job.
Spurrier’s arrival wasn’t accompanied by lofty expectations, so he invited them.
“Some people thought I was a little cocky or brash,” Spurrier said, “because I told them we could win the SEC.”
In his first season, the Gators went 9-2. In his second season, they played in the Sugar Bowl. And for the next 10 years after that, Florida won at least nine games and finished ranked in the top 12 every season.
“There was the pressure I put on myself and the team,” Spurrier said. “We could be Alabama and Georgia and Tennessee and all those guys, but we had to believe. When you believe you can do it, your chances get a lot better.”
Brohm wants fans and his players to believe, too, so he’s not hiding from expectations. He’s embracing them. He’s seen what the town is like when Louisville’s good, when the whole program is humming and the city is along for the ride. To make that happen again in his hometown — what could be better?
So yes, there’s pressure. No one’s set higher expectations than he has.
He grew up here. His family, his wife’s family — they’re from here, too. His kids love Louisville. There’s nowhere else Brohm would rather be. He can’t mess that up.
“The last thing I want to do is be a failure and lose and lose the name I built there because we didn’t win,” Brohm said. “It motivates me to work harder, so that if for some reason it doesn’t work, I can look in the mirror and say, ‘OK, there’s nothing I could have done more to get this done.'”
The 2025 World Series is set, and it will be a matchup between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.
After the defending champion Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, the Blue Jays outlasted the Seattle Mariners in a thrilling American League series.
What carried Toronto and Los Angeles this far — and will it continue to work in the Fall Classic? Which stars will shine brightest? And who else must step up? Our MLB experts are here with your first look at this year’s World Series showdown.
Note: Matchup odds come from Doolittle’s formula using power ratings as the basis for 10,000 simulations to determine the most likely outcomes. Team temperatures are based on Bill James’ formula for determining how “hot” or “cold” a team is at any given point; average is 72°.
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
For the first time in more than three decades, the Toronto Blue Jays are back in the World Series where they will find the well-rested, defending champion Dodgers waiting for them. It’s the third Fall Classic for the Toronto franchise but the first since the Jays won back-to-back titles in 1992 and ’93.
The Expos never won a pennant, so the two Toronto pennants account for all World Series appearances by Canada-based clubs. Game 1 at the Rogers Centre will mark the seventh World Series game played outside of the U.S. border. And, spoiler alert, Canada will be rocking.
There’s a fairly limited history between the teams in terms of regular-season interleague play. The Dodgers hold the all-time edge, 19-11, and the franchises did not meet until June 18, 2002. The Blue Jays won that initial encounter behind a Roy Halladay complete game that featured an interesting pair of leadoff hitters. Hitting first for Toronto in that game, at least at the outset, was Chris Woodward, the Dodgers’ current first-base coach. Leading off for the Dodgers was Dave Roberts, who went 0-for-4 against Halladay.
Before the season, my simulations gave this matchup a 2.28% chance of happening, ranking 13th of 165 matchups that popped up in at least one sim. But because the Jays weren’t forecast as a favorite, and the AL figured to be tightly packed (as turned out to be the case), there were eight other teams that faced the Dodgers more often in the 10,000 simulated seasons, including the Mariners, whom the Jays just vanquished in the ALDS.
It’s a novel Fall Classic matchup featuring teams with old-school traits. For the Dodgers, it has been a joyous leaning on a dominant starting rotation. For Toronto, it’s a throwback offense that features standout batting or, more precisely, all the traits that lead to what passes for a high average in 2025 baseball. All of this makes this first Dodgers-Jays showdown a fascinating clash of teams with contrasting styles of play. The games begin in Toronto on Friday. — Doolittle
Toronto Blue Jays
Odds of winning: 40.4%
Team temperature: 93°
What is the No. 1 factor that has carried the Blue Jays to the World Series for the first time in three decades?
Jorge Castillo: This one is easy. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been the best player in this postseason — and, yes, that includes Shohei Ohtani. Six months after signing the third-largest contract in Major League Baseball history, Guerrero has played the part of superstar in October. He’s slashing an absurd .442/.510/.930. He has three strikeouts all month. His six home runs tied the Blue Jays franchise record for postseason home runs in a career. He has also showcased good defense at first base and smarts on the basepaths.
For a guy who entered October with a downright ugly October history — he slashed .136/.240/.182 without a home run in his first six career playoff games — Guerrero has put his stamp on this postseason to carry Toronto to its first World Series in 32 years. Four wins over the Dodgers, with Guerrero as the centerpiece of the upset, would make this one of the greatest October runs ever.
David Schoenfield: Yes, Jorge is correct: If Guerrero has a big World Series, it will go down as one of the greatest postseason performances of all time. Let’s also give a shoutout to rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage – and to the Blue Jays for having the belief in him to make him their No. 2 starter behind Kevin Gausman at the start of the postseason, even though Yesavage had made just three starts in the regular season.
He pitched 5⅓ hitless innings with 11 strikeouts against the Yankees in the ALDS, pure domination. He got three huge double plays to beat the Mariners in ALCS Game 6. Obviously, the stuff speaks for itself, but the Jays asked a lot from a young pitcher, and he has delivered.
Will it/won’t it continue against the Dodgers?
Castillo: Yes, but in limited doses because the Dodgers will probably pitch around Guerrero whenever possible. Nothing suggests Guerrero will slow down when given pitches to hit.
The Dodgers’ starting rotation has been utterly dominant, but Guerrero has hit elite pitching this month. He has hit all kinds of pitching. The pressure will be on the guys hitting behind him — Alejandro Kirk, Daulton Varsho and Ernie Clement — to make the Dodgers pay when they refuse to engage Guerrero.
Schoenfield: It will be a little more difficult. Though the Dodgers, like the Mariners, strike out a lot, they also chase out of the zone far less often than Seattle (third-lowest chase rate in the regular season compared with 17th for the Mariners). The scouting reports on Yesavage were thin at the start of the playoffs, but now have three additional games to consider his tendencies. He was a little lucky to escape those two bases-loaded jams against the Mariners and given that his control can waver — he had three walks in each of his two ALCS starts — he will have to be a little more crisp against the Dodgers.
Vlad Jr. has been scorching hot all month. What should we expect from him in the World Series?
Castillo: See above. More of the same, unless the Dodgers refuse to pitch to him. We saw the Yankees and Mariners occasionally dabble with not attacking Guerrero, but they did not avoid him, for the most part. The series could hinge on how that dynamic plays out.
Schoenfield: He’s so locked in that you would expect it to continue. On the other hand, this Dodgers rotation has much better swing-and-miss stuff than Seattle’s rotation, which was missing Bryan Woo and featured a subpar Logan Gilbert.
Guerrero hit just 23 home runs in the regular season. Getting the ball in the air, like he has been doing in the playoffs, isn’t something he did consistently during the regular season, when he had several homerless dry spells.
Which other player is most crucial to the Blue Jays’ chances of winning a title?
Castillo: The bullpen is the Blue Jays’ weakest link, which makes Louis Varland significant in this series. Varland is John Schneider’s most trusted reliever. The right-hander has pitched in 10 of the Blue Jays’ 11 playoff games, often in the biggest spots in the middle innings. He has recorded more than three outs three times.
The Blue Jays could carry up to four left-handed relievers in their bullpen — Mason Fluharty, Brendon Little, Eric Lauer and Justin Bruihl — to counter Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy, but those lefties have struggled in the postseason.
Varland, whose splits during the regular season weren’t all that drastic (a .662 OPS against vs. RHH and a .716 .OPS against vs. LHH) will surely be in a huge spot against one of the Dodgers’ left-handed sluggers. Jeff Hoffman might be Toronto’s closer, but Varland, acquired at the trade deadline from the Twins, is the team’s best reliever, and the Blue Jays need him to secure huge outs.
Schoenfield: George Springer. The Blue Jays haven’t averaged 6.5 runs per game in the postseason just because of Vlad. They got production from the entire lineup — the bottom third was especially vital in the ALCS — and Springer delivered the series-winning home run against the Mariners. He’s hitting .239/.321/.609 in the postseason with four home runs and has, of course, been a postseason standout throughout his career, including winning World Series MVP honors in 2017.
Springer had a terrific regular season as well with no obvious holes in his game. He ranked 24th in the majors with an .885 OPS against pitches of 96-plus mph and 20th in the majors against offspeed pitches (sliders, curves, splitters, changeups). His at-bats leading off games will be key to getting the Blue Jays going.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Odds of winning: 59.6%
Team temperature: 122°
What is the No. 1 factor that has carried the Dodgers back to the World Series?
Jeff Passan: Their extraordinary starting pitching. In Los Angeles’ 10 games this postseason, its four starters — Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani — have systematically dissected Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Milwaukee’s offenses. In 64⅓ innings, they have a 1.40 ERA. It’s not by accident. Batters are hitting .132/.207/.201 against them. They have struck out four times as many as they’ve walked and allowed just two home runs.
Now, it’s the Mariners’ turn. Their offense has had moments. They’re capable. But they haven’t seen a rotation like the Dodgers’ yet.
Alden Gonzalez: It is their four starting pitchers, as Jeff noted. But the evolution of a fifth one, Roki Sasaki, has been just as critical. The Dodgers were searching for answers late in games when October arrived, and had it not been for Sasaki recapturing the velocity on his fastball and quickly adapting to a high-leverage bullpen role, they likely would not be here. The Dodgers have won nine of their 10 postseason games, and Sasaki has recorded the final out in five of them. In another, the Game 4 clincher in the NLDS, he pitched three perfect innings.
Will it/won’t it continue against the Blue Jays?
Gonzalez: The long layoff could be a boon for Sasaki, who had been in uncharted territory from a workload standpoint. Having essentially six days off means he will face few, if any, restrictions in the World Series. And if his arm is fresh and his command is right, opposing hitters usually don’t have much of a chance against his fastball-splitter combination.
One potential advantage for the Blue Jays, though, is that the book is essentially out on Sasaki by now, and they’ll have a much better feel for how to attack him than the Reds and Phillies, who both had little to work with because Sasaki’s stuff was so much better than what he displayed earlier this season. If the Blue Jays can get to him, the Dodgers will be left with few other options late in games.
Passan: Toronto has scored the most runs, hit the most home runs and struck out at the lowest rate of any team this postseason. If any playoff offense can get to the Dodgers, it’s the Blue Jays’ offense. This series will be the unstoppable force vs. the immovable object.
Dodgers pitchers average 96.8 mph on their fastballs. Toronto batters are hitting .292 off 97-mph-plus heaters, and they’ve struck out in just six of the 50 plate appearances that ended with those pitches. Expect even more two-strike spin from the team that averages just 35% fastballs on potential putaway pitches.
All of the Dodgers’ starters have at least four pitches — Yamamoto throws six and Ohtani seven — a buffet unfortunate to hitters. If Toronto can’t get to them, we’re looking at one of the greatest postseasons ever, like the 1983 Orioles but sustained over an even longer stretch.
It has been a mixed postseason for Shohei Ohtani. What should we expect from him in the World Series?
Gonzalez: When Ohtani gets going offensively — and if his performance in the pennant clincher wasn’t evidence of him getting back on track, I don’t know what is — he tends to carry it for a while. His career numbers against Blue Jays starters Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Max Scherzer are not great (6-for-31 with 14 strikeouts and zero walks), and a long layoff normally is not a good for hitters.
Any concern about how the time off between the end of the NLCS and the start of the World Series might negatively impact Ohtani’s offense should easily be made up by how it could positively impact his pitching. Ohtani’s six scoreless innings in NLCS Game 4 came on 12 days’ rest; his five no-hit innings against the Phillies on Sept. 16 came on 11 days’ rest.
Passan: It’s fair to say that he won’t match Game 4 of the NLCS, one of the greatest individual performances in baseball history. But Ohtani will get at least one start in the World Series, allowing him to at least recreate some portion of his masterpiece.
And at this point, anyone who doubts Ohtani’s ability to do anything hasn’t been paying attention. The reason there was such surprise at his struggles is because they’re such an unfamiliar sight. And the unfamiliarity comes from the rarity. If any of what he found at the plate in Game 4 carries over, expect fireworks.
Which other player is most crucial to the Dodgers’ chances of going back to back?
Gonzalez: Starting pitching will continue to lead the way for the Dodgers, who combined to slash just .223/.313/.364 at the plate over the past two rounds. They know they have to do better if they’re going to repeat as champions. And Freddie Freeman, in particular, will be key.
The Blue Jays’ rotation is all right-handed, which means Freeman will hit in the No. 3 spot of the Dodgers’ lineup, behind Ohtani and Mookie Betts. When the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in last year’s World Series, it was Freeman who won MVP. But he’s slashing just .231/.333/.410 in these playoffs, and though he hit better against the Brewers, the Dodgers would love to see more power out of him on the biggest stage. He should be presented with plenty of RBI opportunities.
Passan: No pitcher has been better than Blake Snell this season, and with him lined up to get the ball in Game 1 — same as he did in the wild-card series and NLCS — Snell will get to set the tone of the series and then be in line to pitch a potential clincher. In 21 innings, Snell has allowed 11 baserunners and struck out 28. He hasn’t yielded a home run.
He has been the personification of whom the Dodgers hoped they were getting when they signed him last winter to a five-year, $182.5 million contract. If he replicates his performances over the first three rounds of the postseason, the Dodgers won’t need much offensive support to back him up, and Snell will get to celebrate his first championship.
-
Jorge Castillo
TORONTO — Nothing changed for the Toronto Blue Jays, Major League Baseball’s premier comeback artists in this dream of a season, before George Springer completed the franchise’s most important comeback since 1993 in their 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday.
The Blue Jays desperately needed runs in the seventh inning, so manager John Schneider, in keeping with a superstition he has shared with Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins since Opening Day, sat down on the bench in the home dugout at Rogers Centre and watched the surreal sequence unfold. The bottom third of Toronto’s batting order, a pesky group of journeymen and defensive stalwarts and overlooked players who have found a home north of the border, did not flinch with Mariners ace Bryan Woo on the mound in relief. Instead, they sparked a rally.
And Springer, the starring actor in so many October dramas on another team in a previous life, did not deviate from his preparation. He stayed out of the batting cage. He stayed off the tablet so many of his peers use to analyze themselves and their foes.
“He’s very clear minded,” Popkins said. “He feels things.”
And Springer felt what was coming when he hobbled into the batter’s box with runners on second and third, the Blue Jays down two runs, and Rogers Centre on the verge of its roof busting open.
The Mariners, knowing he was hampered by a sore right knee after he was hit on the kneecap by a pitch in Game 5, sought to establish the inner half of the plate with two-seam fastballs against Springer all game. The game plan was obvious when he led off the top of the first inning and George Kirby brushed him off the plate with two two-seamers to begin the encounter.
Mariners reliever Eduard Bazardo, summoned by manager Dan Wilson over closer Andres Munoz to face Springer eight outs from the franchise’s first trip to the World Series, stayed with the approach. Bazardo’s first pitch was a two-seam fastball inside and off the plate. The second pitch was another two-seamer.
That one, however, caught too much of the plate and Springer turned on it, launching the ball into the seats in left field for a go-ahead, three-run home run not too far from where Joe Carter had deposited a baseball to win the Blue Jays the 1993 World Series.
“I knew I got the guy in from third, which was all I was trying to do and then I started to watch the outfielder,” Springer said. “I watched what happened and I sort of blacked out after that.”
This blast, after Toronto secured six more outs, sent the Blue Jays to the World Series for the first time since Carter’s heroics. They’ll face the Los Angeles Dodgers, the reigning champions attempting to become the first team to repeat in 25 years. Game 1 is scheduled for Friday at Rogers Centre.
“Any time your back leg’s compromised, it’s a little harder to turn,” Popkins said. “But he had one turn left so they kind of fell into a trap there.”
It was Springer’s 23rd career postseason home run, tied for third most in postseason history.
“It leaked a little bit over the heart [of the plate],” Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh said of the pitch Springer hit. “Maybe should’ve gone with a different pitch.”
Springer hit the first 19 of his postseason homers while playing center field for the Houston Astros for five Octobers. The other four have come in this postseason, his third trip to the playoffs with the Blue Jays since signing a six-year, $150 million contract in January 2021. His first two playoff appearances in Toronto resulted in zero wins in four games.
This year, the Blue Jays, after vaulting from 74 wins and last place in the American League East to 94 wins and division champions, are four wins from the third World Series in franchise history. Though Springer provided Monday’s heroics, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was named ALCS MVP after going 10-for-26 (.385) with 3 home runs, 3 doubles and a 1.330 OPS in the series.
After the game, Guerrero, who signed a 14-year, $500 million contract extension to remain with the organization that signed him at 16 years old, was in tears on the field as he addressed a raucous crowd that stayed to celebrate.
“I was born here,” said Guerrero, who was born in Montreal while his father played for the Expos. “I grew up in the Dominican, and then from the moment that I signed here, I knew I was going to be here my entire career. I knew I had to somehow make all the fans, the entire country, proud of me, of my team. And like I always say, my challenge is to bring the World Series here back to Canada.”
Guerrero loomed two batters after Springer when Bazardo chose to pitch to him. In the Blue Jays’ dugout, Schneider wondered if the Mariners would pitch around Springer or intentionally walk him with first base open and replace Bazardo with left-hander Gabe Speier to face the left-handed-hitting Nathan Lukes. But Bazardo stayed in.
Before the start of the bottom of the seventh, Guerrero said he went into the tunnel, got down on his knees and prayed for a win.
“Then, George hit the homer,” Guerrero said. “So, it was great.”
The home run was a fitting encapsulation of Springer’s season, one of resurgence from start to finish. Springer, 36, batted just .220 with 19 home runs and a .674 OPS in 2024, his fourth in Toronto and the fourth straight year his production declined. This year, he bounced back to become one of the best hitters in the majors, hitting .309 with 32 home runs and a .959 OPS as the Blue Jays’ full-time designated hitter to spearhead Toronto’s turnaround.
“We’ve just been reinforcing him to be who he has been his whole career,” Popkins said. “Go be violent. Go be aggressive. Don’t slow down. You’re a f—ing lion. Go attack and it just empowered him to be who he is.”
And there was nobody else the Blue Jays wanted at the plate in that spot in the seventh inning, with their season on the brink, than a hindered Springer.
“I had no doubt in my mind,” said Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette, who missed the series because of a knee injury.
Added Schneider: “It was almost like an out-of-body experience because of what he means to this team, to this organization.”
The heroics came days after Mariners fans booed when Springer was hit by a 95 mph sinker from Woo off the kneecap in Game 5 and cheered when he exited. The moment was not forgotten during the Blue Jays’ celebration. One Blue Jay noted during the postgame celebration that it was “fitting” that Springer ended the Mariners’ season after the episode.
More importantly, the home run, another that will live in Canadian baseball lore, extended the Blue Jays’ season for a chance to win it all.
“I love this team so much,” Springer said.
ESPN senior writer Buster Olney contributed to this report.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024