TORONTO — The inside story of how the Toronto Blue Jays won the American League pennant begins where most stories do about the peskiest, most annoying and toughest-to-kill team to make it to the World Series in a decade: the batting cage.
It was about two hours before Game 3 of the AL Championship Series at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. The Blue Jays trailed the Mariners two games to none, having fallen so flat in two home losses that they lost to two pitchers on short rest. Of most concern was the rare clunkiness of the swing of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the heartbeat of the offense and, at a freshly invested $500 million, of the entire franchise.
