TORONTO – Public recognition of the stealth clinch that brought an official end to the Toronto Blue Jays’ lengthy post-season drought – they’re no longer playoff-free since 1993 – came in the middle of the first inning Saturday afternoon, via videoboard message between innings.
There was a loud cheer that a wild card berth, at minimum, is secured, and fans waved the white towels handed out at the Rogers Centre entrance gates. Good times, but not exactly the wild on-field party so many have longed for.
The wild party came inside the clubhouse, after a 10-8 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays provided a moment of coronation before a crowd of 47,094, developing naturally after a toast from manager John Gibbons got rowdy in the all the right ways.
They planned only for a relatively tame celebration – no protective plastic covered the lockers, the cheap champagne for spraying was hidden in the back, while the $70 bottles of Veuve Clicquot for drinking were out – but for a franchise and a fanbase starved for new moments to fete, things escalated rather quickly.
"Anytime you put yourself in the post-season like these guys have you’ve got to celebrate it, so that’s what we did," said David Price, shortly before getting ambushed by Aaron Sanchez, Mark Lowe and Roberto Osuna, who doused him with beer.
“We had a little talk before the game that we weren’t going to do this,” said Jose Bautista. “The emotion, the excitement, everything took over. And we just started celebrating. I don’t know where they were hiding the champagne. Someone went and got it. We expect to have another one of these when we win the division. That’s our goal and we’re going to get there.”
Jose Bautista roamed the clubhouse with a cigar in hand and a GoPro camera attached to a headband. Lowe lurked around whipping beer in teammates’ faces. Marcus Stroman flashed both his whip and his nae nae as Fetty Wap boomed in the clubhouse. Cellphones cameras documented the proceedings.
"That took on a life of its own," said R.A. Dickey. "This is the before party, imagine what the after-party will be. We were just going to have a toast, then I think Eddie wanted to go for it, so we did."
That would be Edwin Encarnacion, one of several Blue Jays who has waited a long time for precisely such moments. Once Gibbons finished telling the team "that he was proud of us, and we should be proud of each other, and be proud of ourselves," relayed Dickey, the emotions took over.
"We want to win the division and there are still more games to come, but we made the post-season already, so first we’ve got to first enjoy the wild card and then we’re going to enjoy again the division," said Encarnacion. "This game is not easy man, it’s a very hard game, and that’s why we’re enjoying this as much as we can. To be here, 30 teams in the big-leagues, to get into the post-season is hard. I’ve been waiting for 10 years and I never made it before. Now I made it."
Bigger things are still within grasp, the Blue Jays’ magic number to clinch the American League East is stands at five after their win and the New York Yankees’ 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox, but that blowout will happen on the road next week if they do indeed claim the crown.
Some Blue Jays felt the party should wait until then.
"This is a little overboard if you ask me," said Mark Buehrle. "We talked about it, I was asked if we were going to celebrate, and I said we can do a little bit, but I think we need to wait for once we try to clinch the AL East. But at the same time some of these guys haven’t clinched, this organization hasn’t been there in so long, so I guess take advantage of it and have fun with it."
Until the first playoff game at Rogers Centre since Oct. 23, 1993, when Joe Carter’s three-run homer off Mitch Williams in Game 6 made it back-to-back World Series titles, takes place, Saturday’s soiree and any sendoff in Sunday’s home finale, when Buehrle faces Matt Andriese, will have to suffice publicly.
"I remember when I got here in 2004, we were drawing 1.4, 1.5 million and we had those terrible black jerseys," said emotional GM Alex Anthopoulos.
"To see how far we’ve come, great uniforms, connecting across Canada, selling the place out over and over again, record TV ratings, it’s an amazing feeling. That speaks to everyone in the organization – this is such an organizational moment, not just because of the wins and losses, but where the organization has come from to where we are is amazing to see."
The Blue Jays technically clinched at least a wild card Friday with their win and Minnesota’s loss at Detroit, despite their magic number remaining at one over the Angels. That’s because with the Angels, Astros and Rangers all having head-to-head matchups, one of the three was guaranteed to lose at least 75 games, more than the worst case scenario for the Blue Jays, leaving one team for the AL West and one for the second wild card.
There’s no need for permutations now.
"Now that we’re in position to accomplish something, not only for the city but for the whole country, it’s a great, great feeling," said catcher Dioner Navarro. "It’s important to celebrate, you never know what can happen. You’ve got to enjoy the moment and then after that whatever happens, happens."
Win No. 89 of the season looked like it would easy breezy for the Blue Jays after the first when they jumped old nemesis Chris Archer for a five-spot on a three-run homer by Jose Bautista and a two-run shot by Russell Martin.
In three previous games this year against the Rays ace, the Blue Jays had managed just two runs, one earned, in 22 innings so the outburst was quite the radical departure.
With David Price on the hill, the Blue Jays figured to be in cruise control from that point on, but the Rays scored four during a bizarre 39-pitch third inning marked by dinks, squibs and gorks and an odd throwing error scooped off the field by a fan that caused umpires to spend several minutes discussing runner placement.
By the time Richie Shaffer struck out to end the frame, the Blue Jays lead was down to 5-4, but as they have so often this season, they responded immediately, on a bloop RBI double by Kevin Pillar that fell in between three Rays fielders out in no-man’s land and a Ben Revere two-bagger down the line.
Kevin Kiermaier’s solo homer in the fourth off Price – who gave up five runs, four earned, in five innings – cut the lead to 7-5, but another two-spot in the bottom of the frame on a Ryan Goins sacrifice fly and Pillar RBI double opened things back up.
Bautista added a solo shot in the eighth, giving him 39 homers this season.
Up 10-5 in the ninth, there was more mess for the Blue Jays to wade through, a couple of errors leading to one run before Roberto Osuna, following Ryan Tepera and Brett Cecil, recorded two outs after a pair of RBI singles for his 19th save.
Another ovation followed from the crowd, followed by the eruption in the clubhouse.
"This is really the beginning, hopefully we’re doing this again in Baltimore," said Buehrle. "Just getting to the post-season is the first step, obviously we’re trying to go a little bit further. This is what we go to spring training for, to get to the playoffs. It means a lot, it means what we set our goal at."
Added Anthopoulos: "It’s great seeing these guys celebrate. I love these guys as human beings, these guys as are awesome. To see them come together, to me it’s the epitome of a team. I don’t know what that means in terms of wins and losses, or where we’re headed, but this group is an epitome of a team as far as I’m concerned."
The bigger parties await the potential accomplishments to come.