‘Doing this for the fans,’ O’s clinch first East title since ’97

— entirely on its feet, standing as right-hander Tommy Hunter closed out the game by getting Ryan Goins to ground out to first base unassisted.

On cue, orange fireworks shot into the sky from the scoreboard and streamers were shot into the seating bowl.

“It was really loud,” Hunter said. “It was fun. You got the shakes a little bit from warming up. It was cool. It was a great environment. That’s the environment it should be in Baltimore. These guys love baseball, these fans, this city. We’re bringing it back.”

While players sprayed bottles of beer on one another and into a frenzied crowd above the Orioles dugout, manager Buck Showalter stood on the first step of the dugout and watched quietly wearing an ALEast division champions cap and a proud smirk.

“You get older, you want to get a good angle and a good seat and see good people get a return for what they put into it and what they’re trying to achieve,” Showalter said. “And this is a huge step, to get a chance now. We’ve got to figure out a way to win 11 games.”

Even though this was the ninth division title in Orioles history, it was one the city of Baltimore had been awaiting for decades. Back in 1969, the Orioles won the AL East on a day in which they won, but they had already sealed the division before their game ended.

On Tuesday night, fate favored the Orioles as they needed just one win over Toronto to punch their postseason ticket.

This was the second-earliest date the Orioles, who endured 14 straight losing seasons before Showalter and executive vice president Dan Duquette brought winning back to Baltimore, have clinched the division in franchise history. They sealed the AL East on Sept. 13 in 1969.

The Orioles (91-60) also became the fourth AL East team to win the division in the past four seasons.

For such veterans as Nick Markakis, who endured years of losing, the dream born on the back fields in Sarasota, Fla., came true.

“It’s an awesome experience,” Markakis said. “We worked hard all season long to get to where we are now and we got step one out of the way. Now we’ve got a couple more steps to go. ... Just taking it all in and the experience itself is something I’ll never forget.

“To do it with these guys, it’s on a different level. It’s awesome and it’s one of the reasons why I wanted to be part of this team and this organization, but we did this for the fans. Ultimately we want to win, but we’re doing this for the fans, that’s the main reason why we play this game.”

After losing keystone players such as Matt Wieters, Manny Machado and Chris Davis, other role players filled holes. And that was the case Tuesday night as Steve Pearce and Jimmy Paredes homered and Alejandro De Aza hit a three-run triple.

Once Pearce blasted a threerun homer to give the Orioles a 3-1 lead in the first inning, anticipation built, ending with a dogpile near the mound and bottles of champagne popping inside the home clubhouse.

The Orioles held the Blue Jays to four hits — and just two after the second inning.

Starter Ubaldo Jimenez needed 60 pitches to get through just two innings — walking four and allowing two runs in two 30-pitch innings to open the night — and seemed almost certainly destined for a short outing.

But he righted himself to last five innings.

Jimenez hadn’t pitched this month and hadn’t made a start since Aug. 16 in Cleveland. But after Friday’s doubleheader sweep of the New York Yankees, the Orioles needed a starter for Tuesday, and Jimenez kept himself ready with bullpen sessions after games every three days waiting for a call in a critical moment.

He left after five innings and 97 pitches, allowing two hits and striking out six.

“I struggled in the first couple innings and it didn’t feel like I was going to make it to the third,” Jimenez said. “But I wanted to find a way to get this team a win. I thank God for everything and I thank Buck for giving me the opportunity to be there.”

The Orioles broke through against Blue Jays right-hander Drew Hutchison, who had an 0.98 ERA in four previous starts against them this season.

Pearce, who has had a career year after he was designated for assignment by the Orioles late April and rejoined the team days later when Davis went on the disabled list, gave the Orioles a 3-1 lead with his 18th homer of the season, taking a 0-1 fastball just over the center-field fence with two outs in the bottom of the first.

“This is where I wanted to play,” Pearce said. “My decision was a no-brainer. I love everybody here, from the players to the front office; this is where I wanted to play. To have this feeling right now, it was the best decision I’ve ever made.”

Paredes, a late-July addition who played in just nine major league games this season before joining the Orioles, then hit his second homer of the season to lead off the second inning. Paredes, who has played frequently since the injury to Machado and subsequent suspension of Davis, took a 1-0 fastball over the outer half of the plate the opposite way over the left-field fence to give the Orioles a 4-2 lead.

The Orioles bullpen closed out the Blue Jays as four relievers combined to hold the Jays scoreless over the final four innings.

When De Aza — acquired in a trade with the Chicago White Sox at the end of August — lined a pitch by Aaron Loup into the right-field corner with the bases loaded, it seemed to be just a matter of time before the Orioles could celebrate in front of the home crowd.

“It seemed to get bigger as the game went on,” Showalter said. “Was it my imagination? Or maybe just louder. I was telling [pitching coach] Dave [Wallace] during the national anthem. I said, ‘Dave, just wait until the playoffs.’ He said, ‘This place is special.’ Of course, I’m biased. I’ve been in a lot, and I don’t think there’s any more electric place than this ballpark when something’s on the line for the city of Baltimore.”