One inning after the Rangers took a 3-2 lead on a controversial play (GameTracker), the Blue Jays rallied to tie the game and then take a 6-3 lead. Players came out of the dugout pleading for the cascade to stop, with little success.
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Bautista’s homer capped an event-filled, 53-minute seventh inning that took a turn when Toronto catcher Russell Martin’s seemingly routine throw back to the pitcher deflected off batter Shin-Soo Choo and allowed the tiebreaking run to score.
The Blue Jays are going to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 1993 after Wednesday’s 6-3 win over the Texas Rangers.
With Toronto trailing the best-of-five series 2-0, Osuna came up big in Game 3, getting the final three outs – Prince Fielder, Mitch Moreland and Elvis Andrus – in the Blue Jays’ 5-1 win. Designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion was next with more than 31,000 mentions.
Texas reliever Sam Dyson, a former Jay, was one out away from escaping with a tie scoring when Bautista hammered a no-doubt, three-run homer, flipped his bat high in the air and took his sweet time circling the bases as the stadium shook and the Rangers fumed. Thunder followed, and went on and on. The left-handed ace threw 50 pitches in that game, making him unavailable to start the deciding fifth game of the best-of-five series. And when the raucous, elongated inning finally ended, another gathering of the clans ensued, this one a tad more aggressive, with the usual uneventful conclusion. Martin was given an error. “If there’s no intent, if he’s not out of the box, that throw is live”. The ball bounced toward shortstop. Texas manager Jeff Banister protested.
“I was walking off the field and a tall boy (beer) came right by me”, Gibbons said.
Thunderous boos rained down from the raucous sellout crowd at Rogers Centre and a few spectators threw garbage on to the field. Toronto manager John Gibbons bolted from the dugout to argue.
“We erupted. It was a special moment”, said shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. Full cans of beer were flying from the 500 level above the press box on to the field.
However illogical it might have appeared, the ruling was correct. “I’m not ready to go home”. But in the sixth, Hamels grooved a two-seam fastball and Encarnacion hit it into the second deck. At that, the fans – loud throughout the series – may have made the loudest noise yet.
When it was over, Josh Hamilton admitted he was ready for a break. Charging at full speed, Pillar belly-flopped onto the turf, reached out and snared the ball just before it touched turf.
Ryan Goins made several splendid plays too, as he has done all season, one of them saving a run.
All three Game 5 pitchers, each under 25 years old, were drafted (Stroman in 2012 and Sanchez in 2010) or signed (Osuna as an global free agent in 2011) by Toronto over the last five years.
DRIVE OF ’85 – Under the guiding hand of manager Bobby Cox, the Blue Jays surged to a 99-62 record – second-best in Major League Baseball – and won the AL East title by two games over the New York Yankees.
DeShields moved to third on a groundout to second by Choo. Andrus, though, dropped the ball for his second error of the inning.
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Fans littered the field with objects during the delay as umpires sorted out a play that is certain to rank up there with Derek Jeter’s Jeffrey Maier homer in 1996 or Reggie Jackson’s hip block of a throw in the 1978 World Series as one of the craziest in the postseason.
