KANSAS CITY – At the end, the Toronto Blue Jays were out of the miracle rallies and unbelievable comebacks that marked their 2015 season. Not even the latest chapter in the growing post-season legend of Jose Bautista, or the electricity in the lightning-bolt arm of 20-year-old Roberto Osuna was enough to save them this time. Four times they staved off elimination to play another day. There was no fifth.
And it was the tiniest of margins in the eighth inning that finally did them in, the speedy Lorenzo Cain, on board via a walk, running hard the moment the ball left Eric Hosmer’s bat and turning home as Bautista threw to the cut-off man. Troy Tulowitzki relayed home but it was too late, and the Kansas City Royals had the difference they needed, barely surviving a last-gasp rally in the ninth for a 4-3 win Friday night that sent the AL Central champions back to the World Series, and the AL East champions home.
What a finish. What a season.
"These last couple of months, they flew by and we played such good baseball, better than you normally see for a stretch," said manager John Gibbons. "We’re all disappointed we’re not moving on. That’s baseball. We put up our best fight today. And they’ve got a great team over there, and they’ll represent the American League really well.
"Anytime you lose something and you’re trying to get to the top, it’s disappointing, it sucks it out of you. But there are too many good things that have happened and too many great players that you admire and enjoy battling with, really. I won’t forget that."
The best season the Blue Jays have had since claiming the World Series in 1993 ended, somewhat fittingly, with a loss in a game in which they scored fewer than five runs. All season long they struggled to win tight, low-scoring games, emerging victorious only once when scoring one run, three times when scoring two, four times scoring three, and eight times when scoring four. At five-plus they were a juggernaut, and they did it often enough to reach Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.
Eventually, though, it bit them, despite ample chances to put up a crooked number, none more painful than in the ninth inning, when Russell Martin opened with a single, pinch-runner Dalton Pompey stole second and then third, before both pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro and Ben Revere struck out and Josh Donaldson, the likely AL MVP, grounded out to third.
They went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Ball game. Season.
"It’s been an amazing season," said Josh Donaldson. "Obviously we wanted it to continue, but there are so many guys in here that stepped up and became better players and really contributed throughout the entire year. It’s been a fun ride. …
"We don’t feel great about the situation now, but give it some time to breathe a little bit. Coming into spring training next year I feel like we’re going to have some momentum, and there’s been a lot of learning throughout this season for a lot of guys, including myself, and I feel like it can only make it better in the end."
All their offence came via Bautista, who hit a solo shot in the fourth inning and then tied things 3-3 in the eighth with a two-run shot that tore through Kauffman Stadium at 108 mph, and wasn’t accompanied by a bat flip of note. The homer off Ryan Madson – as Wade Davis stood idly but ready in the bullpen, and Midwest rage at the mad genius of Ned Yost flared red – made him the first player in Blue Jays history to go deep twice in a playoff game, levelling a game that seemed lost.
"I was just trying to make something positive happen when I came up to the plate," said Bautista, who sprained his ankle on his first home run but managed to stay in the game. "I was able to come through twice, unfortunately it wasn’t enough. Sour loss, but we had enough opportunities to do more and we didn’t. They deserved the win."
Davis came in after a walk to Edwin Encarnacion and retired Chris Colabello and Tulowitzki to end the frame, just before a 45-minute rain delay started. Once play resumed, Osuna took over from Aaron Sanchez, walked Cain and watched Hosmer dunk a ball down the right-field line.
Bautista did well to cut it off and get it back to the infield, but Cain just kept going.
"That’s one of the scenarios you go through before the play happens, but at the same time if I throw the ball home, the situation is probably men at second and third with no outs," said Bautista. "It’s not a guaranteed run like it was because I threw to second, but they were in a pretty good position to score at least one. It’s one of those tough ones. Now I wish I would have thrown the ball home, obviously, but God knows what would have happened if I would have done that anyway."
The margin between victory and defeat in this instance was a couple of steps.
"It was definitely a dangerous play on his part," Martin said of Cain. "He got lucky that Tulo didn’t get a good grip on the baseball. I felt like the way the play was unfolding, I felt if Tulo gets a clean exchange, he’s going to be out by quite a bit."
Tulowitzki was less certain.
"Double-clutch, or whatever, there was no play at home," he said, adding later: "Cain’s known for scoring here on base hits. It is a play where right off the bat I’m thinking he’s going to go home, personally."
David Price, likely making his last start for the Blue Jays, pitched like a boss for 6.2 innings of three-run ball, and certainly well enough to win, although he’s still looking for his first post-season win as a starter. He struck out seven between the second and fifth innings and was overpowering at times, but was left repeating similar refrains.
"That’s baseball, that’s life," said Price. "It’s happened to me before, it’s going to happen to me again. I’m going to move forward, I’m going to get better from it. Good things are going to happen for me in October baseball, I know that."
He was undone by Ben Zobrist’s solo shot in the first and a Mike Moustakas drive to right centre field in the second that ended up in the glove of fan Caleb Humphries, who appeared to reach over the wall to make the grab.
Unlike the infamous Jeffrey Maier reach over for a Derek Jeter fly ball that went for a homer in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS at Yankee Stadium, this drive was reviewed, and the replay official didn’t see definitive proof the spectator’s initial contact with the ball came over the field.
The moment will certainly live in Blue Jays infamy.
"You see the fan reach over and catch the ball," said Martin. "I’m thinking that should’ve been an automatic double."
Bautista’s monster shot in the fourth made it 2-1 and starter Yordano Ventura stared down Troy Tulowitzki after a called third strike to end frame.
The Blue Jays opened the fifth with two walks but Ryan Goins failed to drop a sacrifice bunt before flying out to centre, Revere flew out to left and then Donaldson ripped a liner at 114 mph that a diving Moustakas stabbed for the out.
On his way off the field, Blue Jays first base coach Tim Leiper made a hand signal to Ventura to stop talking.
"They’ve got a good team over there, it kind of ruins it that they have a couple of guys on their starting staff that don’t respect the game and stare at guys when they get guys out, that’s kind of frustrating," said Mark Buehrle. "But for the most part there are some great guys over there so you can’t let a couple of guys ruin it for them."
Ultimately, the missed opportunities caught up to them, as they did in the Game 2 loss, when the Blue Jays were 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position. Unable to deliver the key blow they needed to open things up, a season of wonder, of excitement, of brilliance came to a sudden end, one swing short from living on.
"It’s not always what you don’t do," said Gibbons, "sometimes it’s what the other guys are doing. We do score runs, that’s how we win, but they really held us in check a few of these games, and that made a huge difference."
The Royals get the New York Mets in the World Series; the Blue Jays get to savour a well-earned division title, and a lot of wondering about what if.