The Blue Jays forced a Game 5 and will now face an Indians rookie

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Things are not going to be easy for the Blue Jays for the rest of the ALCS, however long that might be. They accomplished part one of a four-part plan on Tuesday, though, defeating the Indians behind Aaron Sanchez to keep their season alive for at least one more day. While just one team has come back from being down 0-3 in an MLB best-of-seven — that would be the 2004 Red Sox over the Yankees in the ALCS — you can see a path for the Jays to be the second. As said, it won’t be easy, and any path you see in baseball tends to be choked out by weeds or blocked by an avalanche of misfortune, but hey: it’s a path!

On Wednesday, the Jays will get a shot at forcing a Game 6 when they face rookie starter Ryan Merritt. If you haven’t heard of him before, don’t worry: he’s only made one start in the majors and four appearances total. Merritt is in this position because Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco are out, but his goal here isn’t to throw seven shutout innings then pass the ball to Andrew Miller or something like that. The Indians just need him to keep it close for a few innings, then they can deploy what they hope is a miniature version of what they did in Game 3 when Trevor Bauer was lifted after just two outs due to that whole blood gushing out of his finger thing.

Merritt isn’t some top prospect arm or anything — he’s a depth arm in a position the Indians wish didn’t exist, one who has never missed many bats or dominated in the minors. The Jays’ unfamiliarity with him could be his saving grace, as so much of playoff success is built off of which team is doing a better job of employing the strategies their advance scouts put together. An unknown could throw the Jays for a loop and end their season, but that’s only if Merritt can do what he’s been told to do to the Toronto lineup: if he can’t, we’ll likely be talking to you about a Game 6 at this time tomorrow.