3 Blue Jays most to blame for epic failure in the Wild Card Series

John Schneider

All season long, John Schneider was the biggest scapegoat every single time the Blue Jays lost a game. This is obviously an over-exaggeration, but the fingers were pointed at him by Jays fans after nearly every loss.

During the course of this series, though, he has earned some of the finger-pointing. In the first game, he made some questionable calls, especially when it came to lifting Daulton Varsho for Whit Merrifield in a late-game scenario. Merrifield has struggled mightily at the plate lately and Varsho has been solid against left-handed pitching this year, so this decision was a head-scratcher for sure.

Game two was the one where Schneider really put himself into the crosshairs of Jays fans, and baseball fans in general, around the league. Heck, even a handful of players (including former Blue Jay John Axford) took to social media to share their thoughts.

José Berríos started the game and was absolutely dominant through three innings, as he held the Twins offense to three hits and struck out five along the way. He walked Royce Lewis to start the fourth inning and Schneider, who had both Tim Mayza and Yusei Kikuchi warming up on and off throughout the first few innings of the game, immediately came out of the dugout and pulled Berríos.

Of course, Blue Jays Twitter had a field day with this and the decision instantly led to the game trending downhill for the Jays. It never recovered.

It's worth noting that Schneider is not the only decision-maker in the clubhouse and likely is not 100 percent to blame for this move. However, managers in Major League Baseball will always be the first ones to earn the praise and scorn, whichever is applicable on that given day. This is not to say that he's good as gone and is for sure going to be fired, but the early exit for the Jays may lead to some conversations starting over the offseason.