Blue Jays Took a Six Hour Bus Ride to Anaheim and Still Beat the Angels

A broken plane, a six-hour bus ride through the desert, and a game to play the next day. Just another night for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | William Liang-Imagn Images

MLB teams rarely do bus trips on the road. They fly charter, and a six-hour overnight haul through the desert is just not something you see in the regular season. So when the Blue Jays rolled into their Anaheim hotel at 12:30 a.m., it was already one of the stranger travel stories of the 2026 season.

According to Sportsnet's Shi Davidi, the team's charter plane had a mechanical problem right after their win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Blue Jays bused from Phoenix to Anaheim yesterday because their plane had mechanical issues.

Players voted to bus rather than wait for another plane to arrive, but manager John Schneider said he was still "reprimanded by Max (Scherzer) for electing to travel that way,"…

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) April 20, 2026

The joystick was broken. "There was an issue with the joystick, which is pretty important, apparently it's used for takeoffs and landings," Schneider said, via ESPN. The replacement plane wasn't coming in from Vancouver until 10 p.m., so the players voted. Bus it was.

Schneider said it felt like being back in the minor leagues. "I felt like I was back in the Northwest League. But we made the best of it, we all got here safe, and we're ready to go."

Scherzer lost the vote and preferred to fly, but he found a way to make his feelings known. He printed out a letter and handed it to his manager with a formal kangaroo court summons attached.

"I got reprimanded by Max for electing to travel that way," Schneider told reporters, holding up the letter. "So we're going to go to a trial in kangaroo court. I was like, 'Max, why don't you just buy a plane? You've got plenty of cash. Most players that were playing today wanted to get out of there.'"

How the Blue Jays Beat the Angels After Their Wild Bus Trip to Anaheim

Blue Jays pitcher Dylan Cease delivers during the first inning against the Angels | William Liang-Imagn Images

The one thing they got right was Cease. While the rest of the team was on the bus, he was put on a separate commercial flight so he wouldn't have to endure the overnight ride before his start.

Cease went out and struck out 12 batters in five innings, earning his first win as a Blue Jay. He needed 110 pitches to get through those five innings, but he limited the Angels to two runs and closed his outing by punching out Jorge Soler with a 99 mph fastball.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. handled the offense. Vlad went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer to center that traveled 430 feet in the third. Lenyn Sosa added a sacrifice fly in the sixth, and Nathan Lukes came off the bench to knock in two insurance runs late. Toronto won 5-2.

The bus trip is done. The court date with Scherzer is still pending. And honestly, given that final score, Schneider might have the strongest defense in kangaroo court history.