Even after a couple days to process, it’s still hard to believe the Toronto Blue Jays did not win this World Series.
Looking like the better team for the bulk of the series, the Jays had several chances this weekend to finish off the defending-champion Los Angeles Dodgers and deliver their long-suffering fans their first championship in 32 years. But, somehow, those chances all slipped away.
Going back to the ninth inning of Game 6 on Friday night, with Toronto trailing 3-1, the Jays caught a bad break when Addison Barger’s drive to the left-centre-field gap get lodged under the wall, leading to a ground-rule double that sent pinch runner Myles Straw back to third and held Barger on second. Still, Toronto had the tying runs on second and third with none out. But Ernie Clement popped up weakly to first, leading to the play that Jays fans will be lamenting for a while: Barger getting picked off second to end the game when a charging Enrique Hernandez caught Andres Gimenez’ liner to shallow left.
That certainly put a damper on Halloween. And more horrors were in store in Game 7 on Saturday night.
On the strength of Bo Bichette’s majestic 442-foot, three-run homer in the third off Shohei Ohtani, Toronto took a 4-2 lead into the eighth — six outs away from winning it all. But, after rookie sensation Trey Yesavage got Mookie Betts to ground out, Max Muncy smashed one high into the right-field stands to cut Toronto’s lead to one.
In the ninth, closer Jeff Hoffman struck out the first batter to put the Jays just two outs away from winning it all. But No. 9 hitter Miguel Rojas — Miguel %@$# Rojas! — made like a modern-day Bucky Dent and hit one out to left to tie the game.
Still, the Jays nearly won it twice in the bottom of the ninth. With the bases loaded and one out, Daulton Varsho grounded to second and pinch runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa nearly beat the force-out at home — a video replay showed the catcher’s foot came off the plate but went back down just in time to get the sliding IKF. Then, with the bases still juiced and two out, Clement sent a shot to deep left-centre that looked like it might fall in for a dramatic win until centre-fielder Andy Pages — inserted into the game just moments earlier for his defence — zipped over to snag it and hang onto the ball despite colliding with Hernandez, the left-fielder.
Toronto Blue Jays fans may have been reeling from a devastating World Series loss, in the 11th inning of Game 7 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but many said the team’s remarkable season could be a positive sign of things to come.
In the 11th, Dodger catcher Will Smith slapped a solo homer to left off Shane Bieber to put the L.A. in the lead for the first time. But Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the bottom with a double off the marvelous Yoshinobu Yamamoto, summoned to put out the fire in the ninth despite throwing 96 pitches to win Game 6. A sac bunt moved Guerrero to third before Yamamoto wisely pitched around the dangerous Barger.
The walk to Barger put the winning run on first but also set up a potential game-ending double play with heavyset catcher Alejandro Kirk due up. The move paid off as Kirk grounded to Betts at short for the twin killing, putting the Jays on the losing end of one of the most dramatic Game 7s in baseball history.
Yamamoto was named World Series MVP after heroically getting the last eight outs on zero days rest, becoming just the fourth pitcher ever to win Games 6 and 7 of the same World Series and the first since Arizona’s Randy Johnson beat the Yankees in 2001. For the series, the 27-year-old Japanese righty went 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA over 17⅔ innings while striking out 15 and allowing just 10 hits.
Stars are born
Sorry to make you relive all that in excruciating detail. But I think it helps us confirm that this is truly one of the worst beats ever. An absolute heartbreaker for Jays fans all over the country.
And yet, what a ride. A team that finished dead last in the American League East last season won the division for the first time in a decade and made it to within one swing — several times — of winning the World Series. They beat the hated Yankees in the playoffs, and George Springer joined the Mount Rushmore of big Jays homers with his go-ahead blast in Game 7 of the ALCS against Seattle.
Guerrero had a post-season for the ages, belting eight homers to tie Ohtani for the lead while batting an absurd .397/494/.795 and playing outstanding defence at first. He would have been the World Series MVP if just one of those big plays had gone Toronto’s way.
Bichette, who came up through the minors with Guerrero, returned from a seven-week absence due to a sprained knee to bravely bat .348 in the World Series — and nearly go down in Jays lore with that three-run homer in Game 7. Mad Max Scherzer, still crazy after 41 years, turned back the clock with 4⅓ innings of one-run ball in Game 7 — and showed the fans how much it, and they, meant to him as he walked (reluctantly, as always) off the mound.
New fan favourites emerged too. Yesavage, just 22 years old, struck out a World Series rookie record 12 batters in Game 5 — just his eighth big-league start. Barger hit .367 with three homers in the playoffs, including a huge two-run blast in a do-or-die Game 6 vs. Seattle. Good guy Davis Schneider got his big moment with a home run on the very first pitch of Game 5 at Dodger Stadium. And, of course, the delightful Clement batted a scorching .411 in the playoffs, broke the record for most hits in a single post-season, and nearly became the Joe Carter of his generation until Pages robbed him in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7. Pretty remarkable stuff, especially after Clement revealed that he’d been playing with a hairline fracture in his left middle finger.
“I’m shot. My whole body’s shot. I just want to lay in bed for about a month,” Clement said in a dejected Jays clubhouse after Game 7. “After that month, I’ll get ready to play baseball, and I can’t wait for that.”
Same here, Ernie. Spring training can’t come fast enough.
What’s next
In the meantime, Jays president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins have some work to do. Their free agents include Scherzer, who says he wants to keep playing, and fellow starting pitcher Chris Bassitt, who was lights-out as a reliever in the playoffs until giving up two hits, a walk and a run in the sixth inning of Game 7. Bieber holds a player option for $16 million US.
But the top priority is Bichette, who will hit the open market on Thursday if Toronto can’t re-sign him during its exclusive negotiating window. Though his days as a shortstop might be done (a move to second or third base seems likely), the 27-year-old was the major-league leader in hits at the time he was injured and is now poised to cash in.
“I said I’ve wanted to be here from the beginning,” Bichette said after Game 7, and it seems like it would be hard to walk away from this tight-knit group of guys after they came so close to a championship.
But Guerrero, who signed a 14-year, $500M extension in April, understands how the business works. “Obviously, I would love to finish my career playing with him,” Vladdy said. “But he’s got to do his thing, go and do what he’s got to do and get his money.”
Here’s more on what’s next for the Jays.
