Blue Jays edge closer to post-season berth
Win over Tampa Bay plus Yanks’ loss means four-game lead in AL East
They have not quite reached the first plateau, but they can talk openly about it now. They can taste and touch and feel it after 22 years spent wandering in the wilderness.
As something inevitable, at long last.
If the Blue Jays were wary of such chatter coming into this week, they were emboldened after winning two of three against the New York Yankees. They can talk playoffs now. “We had a lot to lose in that series,” Kevin Pillar said before the Jays overcame an early deficit to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 Friday. “We handled business. I like the way our team responded. We very easily could’ve won all three of those games.”
They suffered no letdown after that emotionally exhausting series. Against the Rays, they fell behind 2-0 in the first inning, but R.A. Dickey shut the door over the next six frames. Josh Donaldson hit his 40th homer, Jose Bautista his 37th and Pillar his 12th as 47,697 fans shook the girders with their cheers.
The victory reduced their magic number to clinch a wild-card berth to one, setting up their first post- season appearance since 1993.
And with the Yankees’ loss to the Chicago White Sox, Toronto enjoys a four-game lead in the American League East.
Before the game, Troy Tulowitzki mused about the headway his new team had made since he arrived in a July 28 trade with Colorado. After his first game with the Blue Jays, their record was 51-51. Since then, it is 37-14.
He did not know what to expect, although he could not have expected this.
His first reaction to the trade, after 10 years with the Rockies? “Oh, man, why did I get moved to another team?” he said.
Then, he thought: “OK, something special is going to happen.” And now? “Dream big, you know?” Oh, yes, the Jays know. And now, they are ever so close.
They beat the Rays with a familiar formula: power and pitching. Dickey stumbled through the first inning, then retired 19 of the final 21 he faced.
In the second, Pillar and Cliff Pennington — playing third while Donaldson served as DH — each doubled to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 2-1.
After Donaldson blasted a Jake Odorizzi pitch over the centre-field wall to tie it in the third inning, Pillar led off the fourth with a shot to the same neighbourhood, the first of two runs in that frame.
And in the seventh, Bautista put one into the second deck in left, bringing the sellout crowd to its feet once again.
September had not started well for Pillar, but over his past 11 games his bat has come alive. Tuesday against the Yankees, he doubled and homered as the Jays led, fell behind, caught up, fell behind again and threatened in the 10th, but came up short at 6-4.
Pillar called it “probably the biggest emotional roller-coaster game I’ve ever played.” And he was heartened the following night when the Jays came up big to put the Yankees’ pennant hopes on the ropes.
“To be able to come back after an emotional loss like that and have a pretty emotional win is really big for this team,” he said.
He stressed the Jays’ goal is to win the division. But in the clubhouse, he and his teammates have maintained an even keel, rarely mentioning the word “playoffs” and taking nothing for granted.
“We really haven’t got caught up in it too much,” Pillar said. “We’re just a confident group that feels like we can go out and win every game. We just know if we keep winning, our destiny is in our own hands. It’s a good position to be in.”