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SEATTLE — Mad Max nearly had a month to fume, seethe and boil as he waited for his October opportunity.

Finally given the ball in the playoffs, he shut down the Seattle Mariners — and his own manager, too.

A fiery Scherzer turned back the clock with his vintage pitching performance and Andrés Giménez homered and drove in four runs as the Toronto Blue Jays beat Seattle 8-2 to even the American League Championship Series at two games apiece.

The 41-year-old Scherzer, left off the Division Series roster against the New York Yankees while dealing with neck pain, showed he still had plenty left in the tank by allowing two runs in 5 2/3 innings.

“This is what you play for,” Scherzer said. “You work so hard the whole year, make all the sacrifices, put all the work in to get to this moment to have these types of moments to be able to win in the postseason.”

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his fifth playoff homer for the Blue Jays, who have outscored the Mariners 21-6 in Seattle after losing the first two games at home.

Game 5 in the best-of-seven series has Kevin Gausman scheduled to start for Toronto against Game 1 winner Bryce Miller.

Scherzer earned his eighth postseason win and first since the 2019 World Series for Washington against Houston. Making his 500th major league start, regular season and postseason combined, he became the oldest pitcher to start a postseason game since Jamie Moyer was 45 with the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2008 World Series.

Moyer, who spent 11 years with the Mariners from 1996-2006, threw out the ceremonial first pitch Thursday.

Scherzer yielded three hits, one of which was a solo home run by Josh Naylor in the second inning. But the veteran right-hander settled in from there, even picking a runner off first base for the first time since 2013, and was not removed until manager John Schneider’s second mound visit.

With two outs in the fifth, Schneider approached Scherzer on the field and the three-time Cy Young Award winner told his skipper — in no uncertain terms — he had no interest in coming out of the game at that point.

“I thought he was going to kill me. It was great. He locked eyes with me, both colors, as I walked out,” Schneider said with a smile. “He has this Mad Max persona, but he backed it up tonight.”

Scherzer said he was busy thinking about the sequence of pitches he wanted to throw to Randy Arozarena.

“And all of a sudden I see Schneids coming out and it kind of caught me off guard,” Scherzer explained. “That’s just one of those moments where I know I wanted the ball. I knew the situation of the game. I wanted the ball and I basically told him that in a little bit different language.”

Schneider left Scherzer in and the eight-time All-Star promptly struck out Arozarena swinging at a curveball.

“When a Hall of Famer like this tells you he’s good, you ought to leave him in the game,” Guerrero said. “And he showed he’s good.”

It was one of five strikeouts for Scherzer, who pounded his glove in excitement.

“I tried to stay away from him,” teammate George Springer said. “You don’t really want to get in Max’s way, so you kind of just let Max be Max. It was entertaining, for sure.”

Said Schneider: “I’ve been waiting for that all year, for Max to yell at me on the mound. I think at that point there’s numbers, there’s projections, there’s strategy, and there’s people. So I was trusting people.”

The Blue Jays’ offense, meanwhile, picked up where it left off after scoring 13 runs in Game 3. Giménez hit a two-run homer in the third inning for the second consecutive day, this one off starter Luis Castillo to give Toronto a lead it didn’t relinquish. The Blue Jays tacked on another run in the inning when reliever Gabe Speier walked in a run.

Toronto added to its advantage in the fourth on an RBI double from Springer, who came around to score on a wild pitch by Matt Brash. Guerrero, who singled earlier in the game, smacked an opposite-field homer to right in the seventh off Eduard Bazardo.

Guerrero leads the majors with five homers in these playoffs — breaking the Blue Jays record for one postseason that he had shared with José Bautista (2015).

Giménez provided more insurance in the eighth with a two-run single up the middle that deflected off reliever Emerson Hancock’s glove.

Up next

Miller has a 2.61 ERA in two playoff starts this October while Gausman, a two-time All-Star, is 1-3 with a 4.14 ERA in 10 career postseason games.

SEATTLE — After coming home with a huge advantage in the American League Championship Series, the Seattle Mariners quickly squandered it on the mound.

Luis Castillo turned in Seattle’s second consecutive shaky start and the Toronto Blue Jays pounded Mariners pitching again in an 8-2 victory that tied the best-of-seven ALCS at two games apiece.

Seattle starters have given up 11 runs and 13 hits in 6 1/3 innings over the past two games, and the entire staff has allowed 21 runs, 29 hits and seven homers in 18 innings.

“They’re a good team,” Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh said. “When you leave pitches in the middle, they usually take advantage. So we’ve just got to do a better job of executing.”

After winning twice on the road in Canada, the Mariners arrived home to sellout crowds needing two wins in three potential games in their own ballpark to reach the franchise’s first World Series.

It seemed an ideal setup.

Now, no matter what occurs in Game 5, they’re going to have to travel north of the border once again to try to close out the series in Toronto.

“This is two good teams going at it,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said. “This is what the Championship Series is all about. We will make our adjustments and continue to do the things that we do that make us successful as well.”

The winning formula for the AL West champion Mariners this year has been no secret to the rest of the league: They had strong starting pitching and a stingy bullpen, and their lineup is stacked with home run hitters.

Seattle hit three homers in Game 3 and another in Game 4, but the pitching staff has flopped at T-Mobile Park.

Mariners starter George Kirby was rocked for eight runs and eight hits — including three homers — in four innings of a 13-4 loss. The 32-year-old Castillo didn’t even last that long. He left with the bases loaded and was charged with three runs and five hits on 48 pitches in 2 1/3 innings.

No. 9 batter Andrés Giménez homered off Castillo — the second two-run shot for Giménez in two days.

Left-handed reliever Gabe Speier walked in a run and gave up an RBI double to George Springer, who scored on Matt Brash’s wild pitch to make it 5-1 in the fourth.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. connected off Eduard Bazardo in the seventh for his fifth postseason homer.

“They’re a good hitting team, and we’re aggressive with our pitches,” Speier said. “They got us in the last two, for sure. We’re going to continue to attack. We need to play a little bit better, throw a little bit better pitches. But other than that, keep attacking.”

Wilson also insisted the Mariners will keep going right at Blue Jays hitters with strikes.

“On the mound, we attack the zone, and we just need to continue to get back to that,” he said. “That’s what we do well, and we’ll get back to that tomorrow and bounce back in the series.”

Josh Naylor hit an early solo homer off 41-year-old Toronto starter Max Scherzer and finished 3 for 3 at the plate, but the rest of the Mariners went 2 for 26 combined. And their best chance at a comeback was thwarted when Naylor made a baserunning blunder to end the sixth, getting thrown out at third base on an RBI single by Eugenio Suárez.

Seattle shortstop J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured player on the Mariners roster, said the plan for Game 5 is simple: flush the bad feelings from the last two games and get ready to play.

“Our game is tomorrow,” Crawford said. “Be ready for that. Get some good sleep and be ready to compete tomorrow.”

LOS ANGELES — Jacob Misiorowski held off the Los Angeles Dodgers with 102 mph heat. When he faded, so did the Milwaukee Brewers.

The 6-foot-7 rookie right-hander came out of the bullpen to escape a first-inning jam and struck out nine as the Brewers rallied in a game that remained tied through five innings.

When his velocity dropped in the sixth, Tommy Edman hit a go-ahead single and the Dodgers went on to a 3-1 victory and a 3-0 NL Championship Series lead.

“I think I had a few starts during the year that I felt better, but I felt good,” Misiorowski said. “I did my job and felt like I performed the way they needed me to.”

Misiorowski debuted in June and went 5-3 with a 4.36 ERA in 14 starts and one relief appearance. Milwaukee has used him three times in relief during the playoffs. He has a 1.50 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 12 innings with three walks.

He threw 17 pitches from 100.1 mph to 102.5 mph from the first through fifth innings, but his fastball ranged from 97.6 mph to 99.1 mph in the sixth.

Will Smith singled with one out on a slider in the middle of the strike zone and Freddie Freeman walked after falling behind 1-2 in the count. Edman, who had struck out twice against Misiorowski, lined a low slider into center on Misiorowski’s 73rd and final pitch. Smith scored for a 2-1 lead as Sal Frelick made a weak throw.

Abner Uribe relieved made a run-scoring error on an errant pickoff attempt.

“We needed him today, and he was there for us,” Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin said of Misiorowski. “Wish we could’ve had his back a little bit more.”