Jays can taste post-season
TORONTO 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.
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 on Friday night at the Rogers Centre. “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 on Friday, they fell behind 2-0 in the first inning, but R.A. Dickey shut the door over the next six frames and recorded the 100th win of his career. 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 the Jays’ magic number to clinch a wildcard berth to one, setting up their first post-season appearance since 1993. With Minnesota’s loss to Detroit, the Jays have clinched at least a tie for a wild-card berth. And with the Yankees’ loss to the White Sox, Toronto’s magic number to clinch the division title is six.
If the Angels, playing a late game at home Friday versus Seattle, were to lose, the Jays would clinch a wild-card berth in the wee hours of Saturday morning. That would make it a challenge for the Jays to stage the traditional celebration, but according to Dickey and Donaldson, that is not a big deal.
“The wild-card game is not something that we as a unit would celebrate,” Dickey said after the game. “We’re after the division championship. I think we would all be incredibly disappointed if that were not the case. Would it be great for the fans if we got into the post-season in the wild-card? I’m sure it would. But for us, that’s not at all our mentality.”
Donaldson did not go quite that far.
“If that day comes when we
clinch the wild-card ... for us in the clubhouse, it’s not going to be something that we’re that excited over,” he said. “Yeah, it’s going to be good. But at the time, we still have unfinished business and we’re going to continue to go. And we’ll celebrate if and when we win the division.”
Dickey said his 100th career win — in his 100th start for the Jays — was extra special, given that the team stands on the verge of a longawaited playoff berth.
“That’s what first and foremost to me, is keeping the gas pedal down” he said. “I don’t know what’s happening in the Yankee game, but I know if we take care of business, it doesn’t matter what happened in the Yankee game.”
The Jays took care of business. The Yankees helped.
They beat the Rays with a familiar formula: power and pitching. Dickey stumbled through the first inning, allowing two runs. Then he retired 19 of the final 21 batters he faced. In the second inning, Pillar and Cliff Pennington 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 inning.
And in the seventh, Bautista put one into the second deck in left, bringing the sellout crowd to its feet again. It was a night of milestones: all but clinching a playoff spot, Dickey’s 100th win, Donaldson’s 40th homer.