Toronto Blue Jays celebrate clinching an American League Wild Card series berth, in Toronto on Oct. 1.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The Toronto Blue Jays doused each other with champagne and puffed on cigars inside a plastic-wrapped clubhouse, as dance music blared, before their playoff-clinching celebration moved out onto the Rogers Centre field Sunday night.
They lost Game 162 – a weird one, 12-8 to the Tampa Bay Rays – but the defeat did little to subdue the Jays as they whooped it up with family, friends and several hundred fans still hanging around. The team savoured home a little longer before hitting the road for Minneapolis. The Jays won’t get to play in Toronto again unless they win the wild-card round.
Toronto will be the sixth seed and face the No. 3-seeded Minnesota Twins starting Tuesday at Target Field, where the Twins play host to the entire best-of-three series. The Jays are 3-3 against the Twins this season, last facing them in early June.
Kevin Gausman is expected make the Game 1 start for Toronto.
The winner of that wild-card series faces the Houston Astros in the best-of-five American League Division Series. The earliest the Blue Jays could host a game would be next week, in Game 3 of the ALDS.
The Blue Jays wore “Take October” T-shirts and ski goggles during their Sunday celebrations, and hugged their partners, while their children cartwheeled all over the field. It was familiar – the team danced and drank in celebration last year, too. Lots of teams do that part once. But fans won’t soon forget how the 2022 Blue Jays lasted just two days in the postseason, swept in a blur at home by the Seattle Mariners during Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. In the final gut-wrenching game, fans looked on gobsmacked while the Jays let an 8-1 lead deteriorate into a 10-9 loss.
“That’s a couple of games that I’ll never forget,” Jays closer Jordan Romano, drenched in champagne, reflected on Sunday. “I think a lot of guys are using it as motivation. I know I am, so yeah, we got a second crack at it here.”
This marks Toronto’s second consecutive trip to baseball’s postseason, the third in four years and the 10th in franchise history. The team was swept in its previous two appearances in the wild-card. The Jays haven’t created much magic in October since 2016.
“We’re a dangerous team. I think everybody knows it,” said Jays infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield, smoking a cigar after showering a group of fans in the stands with champagne. “It’s just a matter of ‘can we light that fuse come Tuesday,’ and see what happens.”
Toronto (89-73) finished the regular season with two successive losses. It clinched its postseason spot on Saturday night in anti-climactic fashion. The Jays lost a matinee and remained stuck one game shy, before getting help from a Mariners loss a few hours later, which eliminated Seattle.
“We’ve been through a lot – every team says that, but we’ve been through a lot,” Jays manager John Schneider said. “I just love that they stuck together.”
Toronto and Tampa had both already clinched playoff spots before Sunday’s game, but seeding was still on the line in the regular-season finale at Rogers Centre. When the day began, it was still possible that the two division foes would meet again in the wild-card round. The Jays earned a wild-card spot in 2020 and got swept that year by Tampa.
The Jays sat five regular starters on Sunday. They called up Wes Parsons to start and eat as many innings as possible to save bullpen arms for the playoffs. Parsons allowed nine runs in his rough four-inning stint, including a grand slam.
There were some positives for the Jays. Those included a triple from Tyler Heineman, a first major-league hit for Cam Eden, continued production at the plate by Cavan Biggio and a few nice hits by Davis Schneider. The Jays had a late mini-rally when they generated some runs, had an eighth-inning homer from Brandon Belt and a triple from Bo Bichette (who was not interested in a rest day).
They seemed to shrug off Game 162 pretty quickly when they went into the clubhouse.
“This is why I signed here back in December, I would not sign anywhere where I didn’t think this moment would be possible,” said outfielder Kevin Kiermaier, wearing a headcam to take in his first celebration as a Blue Jay. “We have it. We have veteran leadership, we have young phenoms. We’ve got a ton of talent and we’ve got guys who care.”
“Once you get to spring training, this is a goal, to be in the playoffs,” said Vladimir Guerrero Jr. through his interpreter Hector Lebron. “We’re going to give it all we got.”
Toronto hasn’t won a postseason game since the 2016 AL Championship Series against Cleveland.