It was a
rough September, but the Toronto Blue Jays won enough games to claim home field
advantage in the one-game Wild Card matchup with the Baltimore Orioles, which
will take place on Tuesday evening. After looking a shade mediocre over the
final week, the wins in their final two games with the Boston Red Sox over
the weekend has entered them into MLB’s postseason for the second year in a
row.
And while the September
struggles, combined with the inconsistency of the bullpen all season plus the
struggles at the plate with runners in scoring position, the slate has been
wiped clean and everything starts anew. The question marks I raised are causes
for concern but if the bats get hot and the starting pitchers keep up the
performances they’ve put up in the past two weeks, well, hey, anything can
happen.
Now before critics and Blue Jays
haters out there—you know who you are—start to scoff at the prospect of the
Jays going deep into the postseason, I have a set of numbers and two words to
say to you: 2014 San Francisco Giants.
That’s right, those same Giants
who won the World Series are the source of inspiration for the Blue Jays and
their fans. In 2014, San Francisco led the National League West until the end
of July, slumped a bit and struggled to get into the postseason. The finished
up 4-6 in their final ten games and qualified as the second wild card team with
a record of 88-74.
They went into Pittsburgh and
defeated the Pirates in the Wild Card game by a convincing 8-0 score. Then it
was onto the NLDS against the Washington Nationals who led the National League
with 96 wins. The Giants won the first two games in Washington en route to
winning the best-of-five series in four games.
After disposing the Nats, it was
on to the NLCS where they took out the St. Louis Cardinals in five games. A
seven-game World Series victory was made even sweeter when they took the
seventh game on the road. All together, San Fran finished with a 6-3 record away
from home during the postseason.
Now let’s look at the 2016 Blue
Jays. First of all, they finished with more wins (89) than the Giants did in
2014, and they will have the Wild Card at the Rogers Centre. If they win, they
play the Texas Rangers who they beat in the ALDS in 2015. In seven games
against each other this year, the Jays won four. And don’t think the Rangers
won’t forget Jose Bautista’s bat flip from last year, so expect some fireworks
in that series.
If they beat Texas it will be on
to the ALCS against Cleveland or Boston. They lost the season series against
Cleveland (Toronto won three of the seven games) but held a 10-9 advantage over
the Red Sox. Either matchup would be intriguing. And maybe, just maybe, the
Jays could defeat either of those teams and advance to the World Series.
It doesn’t matter who they play
at that point, but one thing is for sure, they will have the home field
advantage thanks to the American League’s win at the All-Star break. So again,
you never know.
Am I dreaming? Going crazy? Too
optimistic? Perhaps. But so were the 2014 San Francisco Giants, and well….it
kind of worked out for them.
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