TORONTO — The symmetry is too sweet to ignore.
Robbie Ray is back in Toronto to pitch against the Blue Jays in the playoffs on Saturday, a year after turning his career around in a dominant season pitching for the Blue Jays.
He does not anticipate a warm reception from the rowdy fans at the Rogers Centre.
“I think you just have to control your emotions,” said Ray, the Mariners’ veteran left-hander who is scheduled to start Game 2 of the three-game American League Wild Card Series at the Rogers Centre. “Not let the situation get too big. Not let the crowd control how you’re feeling about the game. It’s obviously going to be very loud here. The roof is closed. They’re going to be packed out. The fans here are loud. They love baseball.
“… For me, it’s just understanding that we’re still playing baseball, and we just have to continue to play the way that we have that has gotten us here.”
Wild card series Game 1
Mariners 4, Blue Jays 0
After the Mariners won Game 1, the Blue Jays will turn to the pitcher that replaced Ray in their rotation — right-hander Kevin Gausman — to keep their season alive.
Toronto signed Gausman to a five-year, $110-million free-agent contract in the offseason, just a few days after Ray agreed to a five-year, $115-million free-agent deal with the Mariners.
In the beginning of the offseason, the Mariners had targeted Gausman as their free-agent priority, according to team sources. Guasman made it clear he intended to sign elsewhere, so the Mariners pivoted to Ray.
Gausman ranked fifth in the American League this season with 205 strikeouts.
Ray ranked fourth with 212.
“He’s been a great addition to our organization,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said Friday. “It has been awesome. I love his intensity. … I think it’s going to be exciting for him. I know his stuff is going to be really good tomorrow, and I know you’ll hear him grunting.”
Ray, 31, went 12-12 with a 3.71 ERA in 32 starts for the Mariners this season. Along the way, he emerged as one of the most respected leaders in the clubhouse; it was Ray whom Servais turned to to give a celebratory speech last week after the Mariners clinched their first playoff berth in 21 years.
“I had a meeting with him earlier in spring training and talked about when you sign a player to that length of contract, it ultimately becomes a partnership between the manager and the player,” Servais said. “We’re working together for a common goal. That has certainly developed throughout the course of this season.”
After Game 1, the Blue Jays announced Gausman (12-10, 3.35) will start Game 2. It seemed Blue Jays were hoping they could save him to start Game 1 of the divisional series in Houston, should Toronto advance.
Ray will be making his fourth postseason appearance Saturday, and second start. He made two appearances for Arizona in 2017 and pitched in relief for the Blue Jays in 2020, allowing one run in three innings against Tampa Bay.
That 2020 season was the worst of Ray’s big-league career. He went 1-4 with a 7.84 ERA in seven starts for Arizona before being traded to Toronto. He went 1-1 with a 4.79 ERA in five appearances for the Blue Jays to close out the pandemic-shortened season, and the re-signed with Toronto on a one-year prove it deal worth $8 million.
He made some mechanical changes to his delivery going into the 2021 season, exaggerating the rotation in his windup to add some deception to his motion. It worked. He went 13-7 and led the AL with a 2.84 ERA and 248 strikeouts in 2021, winning the Cy Young Award.
Ray had to make some significant adjustments again midway through this season, particularly after his struggles against the Houston Astros. He learned to throw a two-seam fastball that has been an important pitch for him — and one that could take on even more importance against a tough Toronto lineup Saturday.
“For me the past two years that I’ve had, there’s been a lot of growth,” Ray said. “Obviously, last year the success that I had, this year being able to make some changes throughout the year to adapt and kind of change the pitching repertoire, I feel like there has been a lot that’s changed since then.”