The Toronto Blue Jays weren’t quite dead and buried before Tuesday night, but much of the baseball world had picked up shovels.

The Jays were coming off a crushing, exhausting, 18-inning loss in Game 3. They were missing star sparkplug George Springer, injured in that dispiriting loss.

And they were facing starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani, arguably the best baseball player who has ever lived. And who himself, by the way, happened to reach base nine times on Monday night.

There were questions asked Tuesday of Toronto manager John Schneider about whether he would intentionally walk Ohtani to lead off the game.

The subtext of that question: Are you ready to give up? Were the Jays really going to just concede that Ohtani couldn’t be stopped? And if so, why not just hand over the trophy?

It had already reached that point.

But the Never Say Die Jays had something to say about that. The narrative that has built around these Blue Jays this season would not be denied.

This is a team that hangs around and battles, that makes even elite pitchers work, that grinds opponents down and gets key contributions from up and down the lineup.

Oh, and sometimes one of their stars mashes a dinger.

On Tuesday night, that was exactly the Blue Jays team that showed up for Game 4. A 6-2 win in Los Angeles against the defending champions tied the World Series at 2-2, ensured a return to the Rogers Centre for Game 6 on Friday night, where the anticipation at the ticket prices will again be sky high.

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Toronto’s tested formula worked: Solid pitching, timely contributions, and one dinger.

The Jays didn’t deliver the fatal shot down the thermal exhaust port of the Death Star Dodgers, but they have breached the outer defences.

Ohtani, who in his last playoff appearance on the mound finished off the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series with a 10-strikeout, three-homer performance, was dazzling in flashes.

Through six innings, he had six strikeouts and was his usual freakish self, casually baffling Toronto batters with his assortment of devastating pitches.

But he also had one blemish: a two-run home run from Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., in the third inning that felt absolutely massive in the moment. It was an adrenaline shot to the heart of a team that was not showing a lot of life.

The Jays had failed to score in the final 11 innings of Game 3, and the fear was that Ohtani would throw up another pile of blanks.

Instead, Guerrero lashed a breaking ball over the left-field fence, proof that the Jays would not go quietly again.

And proof that Ohtani, praise be, was actually human. Superhuman, sure, but it was a start.

It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Jays really started doing that Jays things. Daulton Varsho worked Ohtani for a single and then Ernie Clement rocked a low fastball off the left-field wall to put two runners on.

That blast chased the Japanese superstar from the game and gave Toronto another chance to do the damage against a shaky Dodgers bullpen that they couldn’t do a day earlier.

They did it this time: Andres Gimenez plopped a run-scoring single into left field, and pinch hitter Ty France plated another run with a ground-ball out.

Two guys who wouldn’t be among the top 10 hitters that Jays fans would expect to come through in crucial at-bats had done exactly that, stretching the Toronto lead to three.

Bo Bichette and Addison Barger, two guys who absolutely would be on the short list of players that Jays fans expect to get big hits, followed with singles to make it a 6-1 game.

It was, Scheider would say after the game, “A Jays inning, you know what I mean?”

And we did know what he means. The Blue Jays had more innings of at least four runs scored than any team in baseball this season.

This is what they do. Their pitchers keep them in games and their offence wears people out.

Shane Bieber, the trade-deadline addition who started for the Jays, did more than just keep them in it: He was stellar, and even struck out Ohtani, who had reached base 11 consecutive times, a World Series record, twice.

The first one of which was up there with Guerrero’s homer in vibes-related importance.

It sent the message that the Jays would not simply surrender to Ohtani’s greatness. If you cut him, he will bleed.

The Dodgers, it is worth recalling, came into the World Series with a 9-1 playoff record.

They had swept the Brewers, who had the best record in baseball, in four games, allowing just four runs. Total.

The Jays were on the verge of being just another speed bump. That 18-inning loss, in which Toronto blew what felt like countless chances to score, would have buckled most teams.

But not this one. The Blue Jays have been proving doubters wrong all season. Why stop now? On Tuesday night, they were at their relentless, undeniable best.

Put those shovels down, everyone. The Jays, and this World Series, are still alive.

In the fall of 2023, as Premier Doug Ford looked to promote Ontario-based manufacturing, he toured a GTA industrial bakery that produces popular household brands such as Ace baguettes and Stonefire flatbreads.

“They call themselves the technology company that bakes. I call them the NASA of food production,” the premier declared in a video posted on his YouTube page.

Shortly after, the company enlisted the help of Rubicon Strategies, whose owner, Kory Teneycke, has also served as the election campaign manager for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, looking to secure provincial funding.

“Assist FGF Brands Inc. with application to the Ontario Skills Development Fund program to upskill and train FGF’s diverse workforce,” the registration in October 2023 stated.

According to provincial records, while the company was unsuccessful during the initial three rounds of funding, its lobbying efforts eventually paid off.

In September 2025, FGF Brands was listed as one of dozens of companies that received funding from the Skills Development Fund’s training stream, which the company said would be used for training and retraining a high-performance organization.

While government records show the company received $1.064 million from Ontario taxpayers, Rubicon Strategies indicated the company received $1.25 million from the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development in the previous fiscal year, which ended on March 31.

The provincial funding, however, also appears to coincide with a sudden surge in donations from key members connected to FGF Brands — all to the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.

Elections Ontario records suggest the owners of FGF Brands — founder Sam Ajmera and his sons, Tejus and Ojus Ajmera — along with other members of the family, donated twice in 2025 for a total of $32,000.

The first donation, from five members of the Ajmera family, came during the snap winter election campaign: $3,040 per individual, for a total of $15,200.

The second donation, which came almost immediately after, was listed as the “2025 annual period”: $3,400 per individual for a total of $17,000.

In 2022, Ontario Shipyards, formerly known as the Heddle Marine Services, hired Rubicon Strategies to “educate the government on the economic development benefits that can be gained by supporting the shipbuilding industry.”

According to the lobbying records, the company targeted the Premier’s Office and a number of ministries, including finance, economic development and labour.

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Shortly after, the company was awarded millions of dollars from Ontario taxpayers from multiple government ministries, totalling $25.8 million — roughly $13.7 million of which came from the government’s skills development fund.

In July 2023, with then-labour minister Monte McNaughton in tow, Premier Doug Ford announced the company would receive $3.7 million in SDF funding to “train more people for highly skilled jobs in the shipbuilding industry.”

Elections Ontario records show company executives made multiple donations to the Ontario PC Party, along with successive ministers of labour.

In 2021, when the Ford government first opened the fund, names matching those of the company’s chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief operating officer and director of business development donated a total of $8,594 to the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex PC riding association.

That was the riding represented by McNaughton, who was the labour minister at the time.

In 2024, the same year the company received $10 million in funding from the SDF, the same executives donated $6,640 to the Northumberland-Peterborough South PC riding association. Current Labour Minister David Piccini represents that riding.

Between 2021 and 2024, company executives appear to have also donated another $18,870 to the PC Party.

Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser said the process appears to be a “scheme.”

“People are donating lots of money and then they’re getting millions of dollars from a government,” Fraser said. “It’s just out there for everybody to see.”

Stephanie Smyth, another Liberal MPP, said she felt the way skills development funding dollars had been handed out was shocking.

“The fact that this government is operating a circular economy of donations for taxpayer dollars – our dollars – that are then donated back again to the government is frankly gobsmacking,” she said.

At Queen’s Park, as Minister Piccini was grilled by the opposition during question period, NDP Leader Marit Stiles raised another example she said followed the same trend as other Skills Development Fund controversies.

The Ontario Harness Horse Association, which advocates on behalf of racehorse owners and trainers, received more than $6 million in funding over several rounds of the SDF.

Donation records, kept by Elections Ontario, show the president of the organization has made a flurry of donations between 2022 and 2025 to the PC party, elected PC MPPs and candidates totalling $15,548.

Stiles said those donations were just a fraction of the total.

“The association’s president, their general manager, their executive director have all donated to the Conservative Party,” Stiles said.

“Their president and his family donated about $43,000 to the Conservatives. Wow.”

James Whelan, president of the OHHA, confirmed to Global News his organization was granted more than $6 million in skills development funding, although it did not spend the full sum, and said donations made by himself and others were done so in a “personal” capacity.

“The contributions are personal contributions,” he wrote in an email. “And those Individuals have a history of contributions and supporting all four provincial parties.”

Whelan said the NDP should “cease and desist trying to make political hay on the backs of grassroots, tax paying and law abiding rural Ontarians.”

He added the program funded through the skills development fund was one the OHHA was “very proud and passionate (about) and fills a huge void that is desperately needed in the agricultural industry.”

The questions about the broader skills development fund, and who donated to the Progressive Conservative Party, come as the Ford government looks to increase yearly individual donation limits to $5,000 — which, Stiles argued, shows the premier is looking to “dig in” despite the scandal.

“If you can pay to play, then you got a place at the table, right? What this government has basically done with these changes is they’re slapping up a big for-sale sign on democracy in the province of Ontario,” Stiles said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he has left his team to figure out how to crack down on those profiting from resold baseball tickets but doesn’t have a solution to announce as the Toronto Blue Jays’ World Series run heads into Game 4.

As tickets to catch a moment of the Toronto Blue Jays’ post-season run sold for thousands, Ford had mused about reviving anti-scalping legislation his government killed shortly after it originally came to power.

On Tuesday, the premier insisted he was still looking at the idea, although he doesn’t have a timeline, suggesting it is likely not to come in until long after the Toronto Blue Jays versus Los Angeles Dodgers series has ended.

“We’re working on it right now because people shouldn’t be gouged and that’s what’s happening right now, no matter if it’s the World Series or a concert comes in,” Ford said.

“I left it with our team to come up with a few solutions to make sure it’s fair for the average person to be able to go to a game because right now, what I’ve seen, especially the World Series, any big concerts coming to town, certain companies are gouging the people.”

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Ford first suggested he was open to the idea last week; however, his government has since voted down opposition efforts to immediately introduce measures to protect fans.

“People deserve a break from the stressors of daily life and be able to go to a concert or a sports game without paying outrageous prices. Ford’s Conservatives chose to protect ticket scalpers and lobbyists instead,” Ontario Libreal MPP Tyler Watt said in a statement.

The idea was floated as Blue Jays fans took to social media to vent their frustration at post-season tickets costing thousands of dollars.

The anger over price resales is not new, with anger erupting last year during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which saw similar ticket prices and frustration.

Ford’s government previously scrapped part of a law that would have capped ticket resale prices at 50 per cent above the original face value.

A section in the previous Liberal government’s Ticket Sales Act would have imposed that cap, but the Progressive Conservatives paused implementing it shortly after the 2018 election.

A year later, in 2019, it cancelled the rule, saying it was unenforceable and that it would have driven consumers to buy tickets on the black market and drive costs higher.

Opposition parties have indicated they would support bringing the law back.

— With files from Global News’ Sean Previl

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