Jays’ rivalries alive and thriving
Red Sox, Rangers, Royals top list of those we love to hate
Long after the World Series years were a thing of the past, the local club’s main rivalries have been with teams in the AL East.
But after last season’s soaring anti-social emotions took over players on both benches down the stretch — and in two fierce playoff series in October — you can now add the Rangers and Royals to the Blue Jays’ list of rivals.
As far as the World Series champion Royals and the Jays are concerned, their rivalry got very serious and heated during one particular game at the Rogers Centre. A game that unfolded just as the Jays were about to take flight following a series of roster-altering predeadline trades.
So in that game back on Aug. 2, K.C. pitcher Edinson Volquez started the ball rolling by hitting Josh Donaldson in the first inning. Jays starter Aaron Sanchez accelerated things by drilling Alcides Escobar in the right knee and cleared the benches.
Coincidentally, Sanchez and Volquez were the two starters Monday night at the Rogers Centre.
Royals manager Ned Yost and Jays counterpart John Gibbons each tried to downplay the notion of the two teams developing what may become a lasting rivalry. The players, on the other hand, get it.
“More than anything this is the defending World Series champs,” centre fielder Kevin Pillar said. “Naturally you want to elevate your game for that.
“This is the team that knocked us out of the post-season, took everything that we worked extremely hard for away from us. We had some altercations with them, some incidents with them so, yeah, it’s formed a little bit of a rivalry. I think what’s happened with Texas most recently has overshadowed the rivalry between us, but these are definitely games we’re going to get up for.”
Pillar also spoke of and explained the new-found Rangers rivalry. Texas is a team that also had some emotional bench-clearing issues with the Jays down the stretch and into October last year. And when this year’s regular-season series against Texas began in May, the ill-will continued and, in fact, heated up. The difference with the Royals is that Monday marked the first time the K.C. and Toronto had squared off since Game 6 of the ALCS.
Could a continuation of this rivalry happen like it did with the Rangers?
“Yeah, no doubt it could,” Pillar said. “I haven’t heard any whispers of things going on (in the clubhouse). I think both teams are not playing our best baseball. We’re trying to win games. To some degree we’ve both underachieved. So I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that stuff got swept under the rug and we just go out and play baseball.”
Yost, for his part, said this threegame series was nothing special to his team, but tell that to some of the players that were circling like insulthurling sharks waiting for an opening just last August.
“I don’t feel any more of a rivalry than with anybody else,” Yost insisted of his feelings toward the Jays. “They’re an extremely talented team and a tough team, a very good offensive team. Their pitching’s really, really good. They’re a championship-calibre team, but I don’t feel any more excitement or any more tension put on this series than any other series.”
In the spirit of the discussion, the following is a revised listing of the Blue Jays’ top rivals in the L: 1. RED SOX: Ever since former Jays manager John Farrell bolted Toronto to take his dream job in Boston, the Red Sox have become the Jays’ own Evil Empire. Toronto is 99-120 versus the Boston at the Rogers Centre. And the arrogance of Red Sox Nation plus the nightly rendition of Sweet Caroline moves this team to No. 1. 2. RANGERS: It wasn’t just the dramatic 2015 Division Series — with the Jays winning the final three games in the five-game set, capped by the Jose Bautista bat-flip. No, the vitriol continued on into the regular season, with the Jays believing manager Jeff Banister’s dastardly crew waited until the final game’s last at-bat to exact revenge on Jose Bautista, leading to the Rougned Odor dust-up and brawl. 3. ROYALS: The Jays and Royals play only one home-and-home season series each season, like the Rangers, but recall the Jays had runners on first and third, nobody out, trailing by a run after the rain delay in Game 6 of the ALCS. If the Jays had won that night, the gametying, seventh-inning two-run homer by Bautista would have become as famous as the bat flip homer against Texas. 4. YANKEES: The Yankees had been the Jays’ most-hated rival for years. At one point during a long losing streak at Yankee Stadium, Gibbons would not let his team take batting practice on the field because of all the overblown historical highlights on the videoboard they would be subjected to. 5. ORIOLES: Once again, Bautista is in the middle of a hate-hate rivalry, mainly with all-star setup man Darren O’Day. Every night these two teams play there is a chance one player will glare at the other team’s dugout over some perceived transgression.
On Monday, Pillar was asked if he thought the Royals and Jays were still the two best teams in the American League, even though current records may not reflect it.
“We still think we are, we just haven’t played consistently good baseball and we’re starting to,” he said. “So until anything changes, you have to put both of us up there.”