Imagine this: Beat the New York Yankees one more time in Buffalo and go to the postseason. Ol' 2020 is one wild year.
The Toronto Blue Jays didn't get the help they needed out of town Wednesday night. They can take care of things on their own Thursday.
Catcher Danny Jansen, who continued his hot hitting against the Yankees, homered twice in a 4-for-4 night and outfielder Lourdes Gurriel collected three hits as the Jays erupted for a 14-1 pounding of the Bronx Bombers in Sahlen Field.
Baseball's nomads could have wrapped up a playoff berth Wednesday, but that chance went away when the Los Angeles Angels stayed alive with a 5-2 win at San Diego. The victory did, however, get Toronto's magic number down to one to clinch its first postseason bid since 2016. The Blue Jays, who were 67-95 last season, go for the clinch here Thursday night at 6:37 (YES) as ace Hyun Jin Ryu (4-2) pitches against New York's Jordan Montgomery (2-2).
"Everybody is excited here and we've got our ace going," said a beaming manager Charlie Montoyo. "I'm going to sleep good tonight knowing he's pitching."
The Jays (29-27) turned things into an epic blowout with an eight-run sixth that featured two-run doubles from Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio. They outhit the Yankees, 16-4, and New York had a season-high four errors in the game, with a catcher's interference call on Gary Sanchez really setting the table for Toronto's big inning.
Said New York first baseman Luke Voit: "That was not Yankee baseball at all. It's almost like we were the 'Bad News Bears'. "
Jansen had his first career four-hit game and was a triple shy of the cycle. He's batting .373 for his career against the Yankees in his career and is 8 for 16 against them this season – but batting just .138 against every other opponent.
"I would not have been able to tell you those numbers at all," said a sheepish Jansen, one of several ex-Bisons on the Toronto roster aiming to play in the MLB postseason for the first time. "I guess last year I had a good bit of success against them and now hearing that this year, I guess it's eye-opening."
Wednesday's game was yet another blowout in the season series between the teams. The Yankees lead it, 5-4, and this was the sixth time in a row the winning team hit double figures, a first in MLB since it happened between Detroit and Los Angeles in 2003-04. It was the fourth time the margin of victory was more than 10 runs.
The Blue Jays got a measure of revenge for Tuesday's 12-1 loss here against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole by roughing up Masahiro Tanaka, New York's No. 2 man. Toronto got five runs on eight hits off Tanaka in four innings. Jansen had the loudest blow, a solo homer into the left field screen in the fourth that put the Jays up, 4-1.
"He's a great pitcher doing it for a long time," Jansen said. "I was just trying to get something up, really just trying to be aggressive on him. He's gotten me before on splitters. I just tried to be aggressive, see the ball up and put the barrel on it."
The Blue Jays led, 5-1, in the fifth when the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs. But reliever A.J. Cole earned a victory by striking out Giancarlo Stanton, getting Voit on a pop up and Gleyber Torres on a fly ball to right.
"To me, that was the game," Montoyo said.
The Blue Jays have won two of the first three games of the series and are 4-2 against New York in Sahlen Field. Quite a difference from last week's three-game sweep in the Bronx that saw the Yankees score 43 runs and set an MLB record for a single series with 19 home runs. New York has not gone deep in any of these three games.
"It is the most fun I've ever had on a baseball field," Biggio said before the game. "We're right there in the hunt in Major League Baseball. It's something you dream about as a kid and now we're here. There's no fans, we're in Buffalo, we're (going) from the hotel to the ballpark but it's just as exciting as it would be in a regular season. You don't get this opportunity every day, so we're going to make the most of it."
Jansen closed the scoring with his second home run with one out in the eighth. It came off New York's third string catcher Erik Kratz, a 39-year-old knuckleballer who played briefly here for the Bisons in 2014 before landing on the Kansas City Royals' World Series roster that fall.
"Work's not done yet. We're really taking it one game at a time," Jansen said. "It's been a wild year to say the least, right? Just go in there, compete day in and day out. Putting ourselves in this spot is a great feeling."
