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Blue Jays' Magical Run Turns to Nightmare in 24 Hours

The stark reality is this: the Blue Jays must win three straight games or become the latest in a long line of playoff favourites to have their season end in a hurry.
Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto fans waited 22 years for playoff baseball to return, so while losing Game 1 on Thursday was not ideal, waiting another day to see their team win in the postseason would have been OK. The Jays—whether they want to or not—are not only carrying the weight of the franchise's World Series drought, but also trying to help the overall fan base turn over a new page. A caller dialed into the local radio station Friday morning and declared the AL East banner a soccer mom participation trophy. One man's opinion does not define an entire city, but it helped lend perspective to the nervous energy hovering over a town hoping to move forward from mediocrity and disappointment on the big stage.

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The baseball playoffs, and especially the best-of-five format, can level the playing field even for the overwhelming favourites, something the Jays learned Thursday when ace David Price was not his usual dominant self, and Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista were lost to injury. Still, the Jays went 43-18 down the stretch, winning several huge series against the Yankees in August and September to win the American League East division. So, even though this team was facing a potential 2-0 deficit heading to Texas, John Gibbons showed little concern.

READ MORE: Meet John Gibbons, the Family Man

"We're at home, you get the first two games at home where we've thrived all year, so we need to win this one," Gibbons said pregame. "It's definitely not an elimination game but it would go a long way to helping us out, that's for sure."

Toronto's manager predicted a pitcher's duel, although he left open the possibility of a high-scoring affair because, well, each playoff game takes on its own narrative. Game 2 turned out to be neither. It was something else completely—a 14-inning marathon with the Rangers prevailing, 6-4, forcing the Blue Jays to have to win three straight to move on to the ALCS. The pendulum swung back and forth the entire game, and the sold-out crowd's emotions moved with it. As if the crowd wasn't tense enough, the Rangers put up a two-run first inning against Marcus Stroman.

The nervousness was temporarily eased when Donaldson, who had left Game 1 after taking a knee to the head, hit a solo home run to dead center field in the second inning to put his team on the board. The Jays would pull ahead, 4-3, but Mike Napoli tied the contest with an RBI single in the eighth inning. The game then went into extra innings and we pressed reset.

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After the game passed four hours, the crowd still rose to the occasion at key moments, displaying their exhilaration at every fly ball off the bat of Jays hitters. The Rangers left runners on the corners in the 11th inning. The Jays stranded Dalton Pompey at third with two outs in the 12th. Donaldson exchanged words with Rangers reliever Keone Kela after he was quick-pitched to, leading to both benches clearing. The Rangers finally took the lead for good in the top of the 14th. As reliever Ross Ohlendorf struck out the side in the bottom of the inning, the white towels fans waved enthusiastically the past two days flew from the 500 levels to the field.

In just 24 hours, the Jays saw their magical run turn into an absolute nightmare.

Their season could end Sunday. While many—including the players—might take issue with the inconsistent strike zone from umpire Vic Carapazza or a replay review on Troy Tulowitzki's tag of Rougned Odor at second base in the 14th that would have ended the inning and prevented the winning run from scoring, Gibbons chose to give the Rangers full credit for their two wins in Toronto.

"They got a great team over there," he said. "They outplayed us both games. Today was a great ballgame and they came out on top. They outlasted us. It doesn't surprise me because that's a good team. They keep coming. They're very balanced and they've got some real good arms in the bullpen."

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READ MORE: How the Blue Jays Won the AL East

The Jays face long odds in coming back to win the series now, but for those who want to remain optimistic, this team hasn't lost three in a row since July 8-10, it had a major league-best +221 run differential during the regular season, and will have favourable pitching matchups against Martin Perez and a to-be-determined starter in Game 4 (which is a TBD itself). If the Jays can win Game 3, they have the option of bringing David Price back on short rest in place of scheduled Game 4 starter R.A. Dickey, and then have Marcus Stroman on full rest for a deciding fifth game back at Rogers Centre. Before we hit the first weekend of the playoffs, the expectations for the odds-on favourite to win the World Series have been reduced to simply winning a game to keep the season going. The players remain upbeat, although there's really no other choice to navigate this challenge now.

"The task at hand is pretty simple," Donaldson said. "We have to win or we go home. That being said, I like our chances just for the fact of the team that we have in here. We're going to come back in a couple days and get after it just as hard, if not harder."

Stroman, who settled down to go seven innings in his first career playoff start, echoed those sentiments. "We're good," he said. "Unbelievable confidence from these guys throughout the year. We've had our backs against the wall several times and we're not worried about it."

The stark reality is this: win three straight games, or the Jays will become the latest in a long line of playoff favourites to have their season end in a hurry. And for this Toronto team—with Price's impending free agency, a year left in Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion's contracts, and a wide-open AL East that provided the Jays an opportunity to make it this far—all the promise of a deep October playoff run could blow up in smoke this weekend. For the fans, the playoff drought might be over, but they'll have to wait another day to see a postseason win, and maybe longer.