The road to first place wasn’t pretty for the Toronto Blue Jays, but they celebrated nonetheless.
The Blue Jays tied the New York Yankees atop the Al East on Wednesday with one of the dramatic games of the year, in which they blew an 8-0 lead before an eighth-inning rally gave they the win. Both teams’ records now sit at 48-38.
Toronto entered the three-game series knowing full well that a sweep would give them sole possession of first place in the division. Step 1 was a runaway 12-5 win on Tuesday. It appeared Step 2 would be even simpler when it hung seven runs on the Yankees in the first inning, with home runs from Addison Barger and Davis Schneider.
A rally in the third inning made it an eight-run lead, but then the Yankees’ Al-best offense went to work. They got six runs back in the fifth inning, then Aaron Judge did this to tie the game and stun the home fans in the top of the eighth.
Say this for the Blue Jays, they didn’t let blowing an eight-run lead keep them down. They responded quickly in the bottom of the inning, with George Springer walking, stealing second base, taking third on a fly-out and scoring on a wild pitch to take back the lead.
Barger hit an RBI single on the same at-bat to make it 11-9.
Jeff Hoffman closed it out in the ninth, aided by a jumping catch at the wall by center fielder Myles Straw.
The win gives the Blue Jays the chance to take sole possession of the division on Thursday, with starting pitcher Chris Bassitt scheduled to face Clarke Schmidt.
Not many people expected the Jays to be competitive in a crowded AL East and in some ways they’re over-performing. Their plus-6 run differential ranks fourth in the division and well behind the Yankees. They seemed especially when a four-game losing streak pushed their record to 16-20 on May 7, but their 31-18 record since then is the second-best in MLB.
The Blue Jays have a share of first place. (Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images)
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
So much has been made about the Blue Jays and their path forward in recent years. They made very clear they believed they can still contend with their $500 million Vladimir Guerrero Jr. contract extension, plus the $92.5 million Anthony Santander free-agent deal and the trade that landed Andrés Giménez’s $106.5 million deal.
Not everything is paying dividends (Santander is on the IL after hitting .179 in 50 games), but Toronto has enough working in the meantime. Now we see if they can do it in the second half as well.
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