Blue Jays celebrate first Major League Baseball playoff berth in 22 years

The Toronto Blue Jays have won five of their last seven road games.

(Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP).

In the eighth inning Kevin Pillar laced a 2-out double to score pinch runner DaltonPompey to tie the game and set the stage for Donaldson’s blast against Steve Geltz in the bottom of the ninth.

The AL East-leading Blue Jays hope there will be more partying ahead.

For pitcher CC Sabathia and the New York Yankees, a wild card appears to be their ticket to October.

Blue Jays playoff tickets became available to the public on Thursday, but sold out within 100 minutes of hitting the open market. I think we would all be incredibly disappointed if that were not the case.

RF Jose Bautista hit two home runs in a 10-8 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday to give him 39 this season.

“But we just got in here and everybody, the emotion, the excitement, everything took over”.

The Rays interrupted the Blue Jays’ momentum with four runs in the third inning. But baseball’s number-crunchers determined the Jays had indeed clinched at least a wild-card berth.

“The wild card game is not something that we as a unit would celebrate”, Dickey said. We expect to have another one of these when we win the division. Beyond that, it’s just a great moment. The Cardinals will then play three against the Braves and the Pirates will face the Reds – the Pirates will have a slight advantage in these final three games since they’re playing at home. Editing together the various radio and TV play-by-play calls of Donaldson’s home run-Jays TV announcer Buck Martinez is particularly excited-the clip captures the emotion that the late-season surge has brought with it.

“When you look at their body of work over the course of the year, they don’t have many games like this”, Rays manager Kevin Cash said. Be it in the unlikely position of a one-game wild card spot or as division winners, there is not a team out there that wants to face David Price and have to throw strikes to Joey Bats, Encarnacion, Tulo and J-Don (I thought of that one myself). Smoak’s 17th home run of the season upped his RBI total to a career-high 56.

Price (18-5) didn’t have a vintage performance either but outlasted his former Rays teammate in going five innings. He joins Carlos Delgado (2000) and Shawn Green (1999) as the only Toronto players to hit 40 home runs and 40 doubles in the same season.

Pitcher David Price said, “Any time you put yourself in the postseason like these guys have, you’ve gotta celebrate”.

But hey, I guess as long as I’ve got a shot with Ariana Grande! Despite the hard outing, Price maintained his AL ERA lead at 2.45.

The ball that rocketed off Josh Donaldson’s bat had barely cleared airspace over the left-field wall Sunday when the Rogers Centre sellout crowd erupted in a roaring crescendo of celebration.

The Jays ambushed Archer early on Saturday, taking a a 5-0 lead in the first on homers by Bautista and Russell Martin. The third baseman was then doused with popcorn and assorted other liquids during his post-game TV interview. He matched a season high by walking five, the second straight start he’s walked that many.

While running on the warning track before the game, Price and Archer shared a warm embrace in center field.

Rays: Longoria started at DH, with Richie Shaffer at 3B…. He injured the knee August 18….

Tampa Bay counters with Matt Andriese (3-5, 4.37), who has made 10 relief appearances since starting at Kansas City on July 7. Andriese allowed three homers in 5 1-3 innings in a home loss to Toronto on June 22.