How Blue Jays have responded after crushing playoff losses

Article content

The Toronto Blue Jays have had some rough playoff losses over the years, though none quite like Tuesday’s disaster in the Bronx.

Article content

If this team can respond with a much better performance either on Wednesday or in a potential Game 5 Friday, Aaron Judge’s heroics will be forgotten.

Article content

Article content

Here’s how Jays teams of the past have responded to bad losses, starting with most recently and moving backwards:

2022 Wild Card Series vs. Seattle

Everyone remembers this one, though the less said about it the better.

After the offence no-showed in the opener in front of 47,000 and change at Rogers Centre (the Mariners won 4-0, with three of the runs coming in the first inning off Alek Manoah, including a two-run home run Cal Raleigh), all signs pointed to a winner-take-all Game 3.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

About that. Toronto’s 8-1 lead vanished, George Springer and Bo Bichette collided, knocking Springer out of the game, and the Mariners came all the way back to sweep the stunned Jays. That one was as ugly as it gets, even worse than Tuesday’s squandered 6-1 edge.

Article content

Article content

2016 ALCS vs. Cleveland

A 4-2 Game 3 loss had the Jays facing a 3-0 series hole, but the team showed heart in two-hitting Cleveland to at least extend things. Alas, it would be the playoff game of the Jose Bautista-Josh Donaldson-Edwin Encarnacion era.

2015 ALCS vs. Kansas City

We’ll take a couple from this series. After losing the opener 5-0, a Jays team most believed was good enough to not only make the World Series, but win it all, seemed poised to take home-field advantage away from the Royals. Up 3-0, with David Price cruising, the team was nine outs away from heading back to Rogers Centre with all the momentum.

Then Bautista and Ryan Goins got crossed up, allowing a pop-up to fall in between them to start the inning and Kansas City scored five in the frame, leading to another win.

Article content

The Jays did respond to that heartbreaker with an 11-8 win, but then got clobbered 14-2. Facing elimination, the team broke open a 1-0 game with four runs in the seventh to win 7-1 in one of the better response games in franchise history, before then losing Game 6.

1993 World Series vs. Philadelphia

This was the ultimate response game the Jays ever played.

Instead of riding the wave of a wild 15-14 victory that put them up 3-1, Toronto’s bats had disappeared in a 2-0 loss that sent the series back to Toronto for Game 6.

What happened next isn’t just Canadian baseball history, it’s part of the lore of the game everywhere.

With all of the pressure now on them, the defending champions put the Phillies in a 3-0 hole after the first inning, built a 5-1 lead, but trailed after seven thanks to a five-run inning. With a Game 7 in sight, the greatest leadoff hitter of all-time, Rickey Henderson, drew a walk off Mitch Williams.

Article content

Devon White flew out, Paul Molitor singled to put runners on first and second, and that sent Joe Carter to the plate.

Carter sent Williams’s 2-2 pitch over the wall in left field for his “Touch ‘em all” moment, winning the World Series.

1993 ALCS vs. Chicago

Carter’s heroics would not even have been possible had the Jays not stepped up a series earlier.

Two convincing wins in Chicago had Toronto way out in front, but 6-1 and 7-4 Sox wins at SkyDome tied it all up.

The Jays could have wilted and realistically probably would have been done had they not won Game 5, but banged out 14 hits in the game, scored in each of the first four innings, and put Chicago on the brink before knocking them out the next game.

1992 World Series vs. Atlanta

Talk about a buzz kill. With a chance to win the World Series for the first time, the Jays laid an egg with Jack Morris lit up in a Game 5 loss to the Braves.

Article content

Under the rules of the time, a Game 6 loss at Atlanta would have set up a winner-take-all game in Georgia. For a franchise that had already memorably blown a 3-1 series lead in 1985, history was on the verge of repeating itself when the Braves got to previously un-hittable Tom Henke in the ninth inning to force extra innings.

Article content

Dave Winfield came through with a two-out double to score two, which ended up winning Toronto the championship despite Atlanta rallying for a run in the bottom of the inning.

1992 ALCS vs. Oakland

In another example of the Jays wasting a chance to eliminate an opponent, the team had failed to close out arch-rival Oakland with a 3-1 series lead.

Dave Stewart, who would be on Toronto’s side a year later, had pitched a complete-game gem to force a sixth game.

Article content

In what was at that point the biggest game in franchise history, Carter — who batted under .200 for the series — hit a first-inning home run to set the tone, Roberto Alomar Jr. starred, Juan Guzman dominated and the A’s were never in it.

1991 ALCS vs. Minnesota

Losing Game 3 in extra innings was a tough blow, but a win here would have squared matters. Instead, Kirby Puckett and Morris terrorized Toronto in a blowout win that set up a pretty academic series clincher in the next game for the Twins.

1989 ALCS vs. Oakland

After rallying from a 5-1 deficit to eventually fall by a single run in a potential series-tying Game 4, Toronto didn’t have the answers until too late (three runs in the final two innings of a 4-3 loss) and got eliminated by Stewart and eventual champion Oakland.

OUR TOP 3 JAYS RESPONSES

1993 World Series Game 6

1992 World Series Game 6

1992 ALCS Game 6

@WolstatSun

Article content