What Went Wrong: It Was 8-1

Ooh, boy. Well...that happened.

You know, as a fan of a division rival, I only save my actual hatred for the Boston Red Sox. I have no reason to hate the Toronto Blue Jays. I remain fascinated by their team history; joined the American League in 1977, won their first division title in 1985, and became an AL powerhouse throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, which led them to back-to-back World Championships in 1992 and 1993. Many moons passed before they would become a playoff team again, but the Blue Jays appear to be a perennial playoff team at the current moment.

The Jays, led by one of last year's home run kings, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., reached the extended postseason in 2020, and 2021 saw them remain alive in the final day, only to come up just a bit short. 2022 saw them finish second in the American League East and finish with the #4 seed, which is the AL's home Wild Card position. They faced off against the Seattle Mariners in the Wild Card Series, and Game One was not kind to them. The Jays had to deal with Luis Castillo and his dominant performance, leading to a shutout loss for the Jays. Game Two was much better; the Toronto bats woke up big time against their former ace, Robbie Ray. The Jays took an 8-1 lead into the sixth inning, and it looked like a deciding third game was inevitable.

Or so we all thought.

With the bases full of Mariners in the sixth, a wild pitch made it 8-2. After that, Carlos Santana crushed a three-run homer to cut the six-run deficit in half. The Jays would add a run to make it 9-5, but Cal Raleigh (the hero won ended Seattle's 21-year postseason drought) made it 9-6 with an RBI single. The bases were loaded again, with J.P. Crawford clearing the bases with a double. Tie game. The 9th inning saw Adam Frazier give Seattle their first lead with an RBI double, and after that, the door (and the season) was shut on the Blue Jays.

I cannot believe this happened. The Mariners only had a one percent chance to win that game after the fifth inning, but as the saying goes, "So you're telling me there's a chance." This was the second-biggest blown lead in a postseason game in history; the biggest one came in Game Four of the 1929 World Series, which saw the Chicago Cubs up 8-0 over the Philadelphia Athletics, who actually scored ten runs in the seventh inning to win the game (the A's later won Game Five to take the Series).

When the game was tied at 9, the thing I feared the most happened: social media used this comeback to somehow make fun of the Toronto Maple Leafs. As a Maple Leafs sympathizer, I didn't like seeing such comments, but regarding the Jays, their stats were not plentiful. All of their runs were scored in Game Two, and regarding the long ball, Teoscar Hernandez was the only Blue Jay who homered in the series, hitting two homers in Game Two. Hernandez also drove in four runs, Danny Jansen had two RBIs, and Matt Chapman and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. only had one each. In fact, Vlad Jr. did not have a good series, only going 1-for-8 (.125) in the two games played.

The Mariners' win completes the American League half of the Division Series picture. As a result of their first postseason series win since the 2001 ALDS, the Mariners will face the Houston Astros, while the Cleveland Guardians (who ousted the Tampa Bay Rays) will face the New York Yankees. As for the Jays, they had a good year, but their postseason was quite disappointing. They should be back again in 2023, but Toronto fans can enjoy watching Auston Matthews light it up during the Jays offseason.

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