UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Josh Donaldson hasn’t forgotten how his post-season ended last year; the loss motivates him
The Jays’ Josh Donaldson was on the losing side in last season’s playoffs.
He’s determined not to let that happen again,
Last year’s American League play-in game was exactly what former Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig had in mind when he added the second wild-card spot in 2012.
Game 7 suspense right off the hop. The firecracker joy of winning a second life. The long anguish of a season extinguished.
For the Kansas City Royals and their fans — whose own playoff drought was eight years longer than the Blue Jays — it was an epic comeback and a franchise-altering victory.
But for the Oakland A’s, the loser of that 12-inning hair-raiser, it was an equally epic collapse. They had led by four runs in the eighth inning and by one in the 12th. The clubs have gone in opposite directions since.
Josh Donaldson, now the Blue Jays’ third baseman, was manning the hot corner for Oakland on that wild night in Kansas City. The Royals’ game-tying and game-winning runs were scored on balls hit in his direction — a high, infield chopper he tried to barehand and a hard grounder down the third-base line that he dove for and missed by centimetres. They weren’t mistakes; just balls he couldn’t get to.
But the loss stuck with Donaldson all off-season, even after he was traded to the Jays in November.
“It was bad,” he told the Star recently. “We were one of the best teams in baseball last year and then all of a sudden we went to one game and we were leading by four runs — I can’t tell you the last time we gave up a four-run lead over there and we did — and we lost. It wasn’t a good feeling.”
“We were one of the best teams in baseball last year and then all of a sudden we went to one game . . . and we lost. It wasn’t a good feeling.” JOSH DONALDSON
When did the loss stop bothering him? “It hasn’t,” he said.
Known for his ever-burning intensity, Donaldson, nicknamed the Bringer of Rain for his Twitter handle, has been a constant force for the Jays all season, putting together arguably the most impressive single season in franchise history while consistently coming through in the big moments.
He led the majors in runs (122) and the American League in RBIs (123) and extra-base hits (84), and was near the top of just about every offensive category, while also playing exceptional defence. He is the frontrunner to win the AL MVP award and would be the first player in more than 30 years to win the honour fol- lowing an off-season trade.
In what looked like a great deal for the Jays and general manager Alex Anthopoulos at the time — and a total heist in hindsight — Donaldson was acquired in November from the A’s for oft-injured and underachieving third baseman Brett Lawrie, two pitching prospects and an 18-yearold, highly touted shortstop.
While much of the focus on the Jays’ historically good second half has been on the transformative trades at the deadline — for left-hander David Price and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, namely — the trade for Donaldson was bigger. It’s hard to imagine where the Jays would be without him.
No American League player has contributed more to his team’s wins, according to Win Probability Added, a stat that contextualizes a player’s contributions by giving more credit to game-changing plays.
But Donaldson doesn’t want to talk about his MVP chances or his individual season or where his year ranks among all-time Jays.
“I don’t think about that. I think about helping my team win,” he said. “That’s what’s got me to this point today, so I’m not going to change that. In the off-season, that’s when you think about this kind of stuff.”
While his offensive numbers no doubt received a boost by trading the expansive confines of Oakland’s O.Co Coliseum for the hitter-friendly Rogers Centre, he has also benefitted from hitting in front of Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, who together form the most fearsome power-hitting trio in baseball. They were just the fourth teammate trio in history to hit at least 39 homers apiece in a season.
“Our offence is definitely intimidating to other pitchers,” Donaldson said. But looking at the roster at the start of the year, it’s what he expected. “It’s not really anything that’s surprising to me or guys in this clubhouse.”
The notion of clutch hitting has been long debated and largely debunked, but Donaldson provides a convincing counter-case. He set a Jays franchise record with three walk-off home runs this year and led the majors in walk-off hits, while his seven walk-off homers since 2013 are twice as many as any other player. He has said that ever since he was a kid he has relished the opportunity to be the hero.