Playing their ‘best baseball,’ Jays like matchup with Mariners

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BALTIMORE — Well aware of the possibilities for more than a week now, the Toronto Blue Jays had already been prepping for the Seattle Mariners when it became official that the west coast club would be their wild-card series foe.

There’s really no secret what got the Mariners here.

Aided by young superstar Julio Rodriguez and a diverse lineup that blends power with some speed, the backbone of the M’s is their deep bullpen and trio of frontline starters.

“Very talented, very young, very similar to the club we have,” right-hander Kevin Gausman said Wednesday morning as the Jays were getting ready to finish out the regular-season schedule with a meaningless doubleheader at Camden Yards. “A lot of young talent and prospects who have come up through that organization and also a lot of guys who are new to that organization in the last year. A deep, talented team. We’re going to need to play good baseball to win the series.”

In Game 1 on Friday, the Mariners will send right-hander Luis Castillo and his 2.99 ERA to the mound to face Alek Manoah and his sparkling 2.24 mark.

The rest of the rotation is currently undecided on both sides, but the expectation is a Gausman versus Robbie Ray pitching duel in Game 2, pitting last year’s nine-figure free-agent signings against each other on the biggest stage.

With the Jays sporting a 21-11 record since the start of September — not including Wednesday’s Game 162 finale — they head into the postseason playing some of their best and most consistent baseball of the season.

“Obviously, we’ve played them two different times this year and they got the better of us, but I think we match up really well,” Jays pitching coach Pete Walker said. “They’ve got good starting pitching