Blue Jays Win American League East!

My last post was about the Jays ending their 22-year playoff drought, and now, less than a week later, they've clinched their first AL East title since 1993.  It was very impressive to me that the team simply went about their business over the past week or so as all the talk about 'clinching' this and 'magic number' that began to heat up.  At one point Josh Donaldson (I think) asked one of the TV guys how many games they needed to win in order to clinch, and the commentator started to explain how the magic number involved a combination of Toronto wins and Yankee losses... only to have Donaldson say, "No, I don't care about other teams and what they do.  How many wins do we need?"  That speaks volumes about this edition of Blue Jays:  they focus on the job at hand and play hard every inning as if it were the most important inning ever.  I can so get behind a club with that kind of mindset!

With today's 15-2 win over Baltimore and resulting title clinch out of the way, the only regular season goal left to achieve for the team is finishing 1st in the American League, ahead of Kansas City.  They currently lead by 2 games, with 5 games to go, and Toronto holds the tie-breaker if the two teams finish in a dead heat.  If the Jays can finish 1st, they'll have home field advantage throughout the playoffs (for as long as they last) because the American League won home field for the World Series by taking this year's All-Star game over the National League back in the summer.  Considering how well the Jays played at home in 2015 (53-28), that could end up making a huge difference in how deep they go in their first postseason run since 1993.

Blue Jays End 22-Year Playoff Drought

I was beginning to think I might never get to see the Jays in the playoffs again, after seeing them live in Game 1 of the 1993 World Series (the last time they were in a playoff series).  However, an incredible 2015 season which saw not one but two 11-game winning streaks for Toronto has now culminated with the team clinching a postseason berth with their best performance since 1993.

Additions such as Josh Donaldson, Troy Tulowitzki, Russell Martin and David Price to a roster that already boasted Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion has allowed the team to finally achieve the potential that so many have seen in them for several seasons now.  It's been a heck of a ride so far, even managing to push coverage of exhibition NHL games to the back burner during late September here in Canada.  I don't know deep they can actually go, but at least this year the Jays won't be breaking out their golf clubs after their 162nd game is over.