Joy in the streets of Toronto

A moment of collective agony gave way to revelry in Toronto after the Blue Jays’ nervy but decisive win over the Texas Rangers in the AL Division Series on Wednesday.

Crowds poured out of sports bars, office buildings and the grand hulk of the Rogers Centre to celebrate their baseball team’s lengthy and hardfought Game 5 victory over the Rangers, 6-3. The Jays will advance to the American League Championship Series, facing the Kansas City Royals.

The night could have turned out differently. During the seventh inning, when a questionable call at home plate gave the Rangers the goahead run, beer cans and other debris rained from the upper levels of the Rogers Centre, some of it hitting people in the crowd and landing on the field. The TV broadcast showed parents shielding their babies. Many took it as an ill omen for post-game troublemaking, should the home team lose.

Toronto police said they were ready for anything afterwards. “We’re prepared for any eventuality and we have lots of officers on staff,” said 52 Division Staff Sgt. Winston Bennett.

Police were out in force after the game and had blocked off some of the roads near the Rogers Centre.

“It was both the ugliest game and the most beautiful game,” said Nick Bludov. “Total strangers are just hugging each other; the mood was incredible.”

Bludov has been a fan since ’93, and he blames the 22-year buildup of anticipation and disappointment, for “why it got so ugly. People were feeling it was going to slip away because of some freak call, but then they won it fair and square.”

“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life, and I’m not just talking about baseball,” said Boyd Lipsett, a Grade 3 and 4 teacher wearing a Russell Martin jersey on Blue Jays Way.

“I don’t know if it was a bad call or whatever it was, but to go from that low-low to the high-high of knocking it out — unbelievable.”

At Dundas Square, there was a swarm of cheers, whistles, flags and honks after the Blue Jays’ win. An increased police presence watched over a growing crowd, as the square filled with more people trickling out of restaurants. Roars could be heard from the nearby Shark Club. “It’s electric,” general manager Jimi Turner said inside.