On Tuesday night, Edwin Encarnacion and the Toronto Blue Jays exemplified exactly why they’re a Wild Card contender by muscling an intense walk-off win over the Baltimore Orioles.
There was no shortage of excitement in the first American League East Wild Card showdown in Major League Baseball history.
The Blue Jays showcased their pitching depth, opting to send late-rotation starter Marcus Stroman to the mound despite a 1-2 record and 7.04 earned run average against the Orioles this season.
Baltimore countered with Chris Tillman, easily the most stable arm in the rotation in 2016 (16-6, 3.77) who has fared far better against the team’s division rival, going 1-0 with a 3.63 ERA.
But like regular reason lines that are erased in the postseason, prior experience had no real bearing on one of the most dramatic wins in recent Wild Card history.
Jose Bautista launched the game into action in the bottom of the second, taking Stroman deep to left field on a 3-1 count and pushing the Jays ahead 1-0.
After one-two-three innings in the second and third, Toronto also flashed their defensive prowess. With Adam Jones on second, Manny Machado turned on a 3-1 pitch, rocketing it out into right center field. Off the bat, it looked nearly guaranteed to score the runner but Kevin Pillar‘s pursuit ended in a diving catch to take the inning to two outs.
But regular season home run leader Mark Trumbo answered back, sending a 101-mph first pitch over the wall in left field, putting the Orioles up 2-1.
With one out in the fifth, Michael Saunders lofted a fly ball out into left field, bouncing it into the stands for a ground-rule double. Pillar followed with a double of his own, squaring up with a high fastball and taking it into deep right field. The ball, close to being caught, was mishandled by Michael Bourn, allowing Saunders to only advance to third.
Ezequiel Carrera followed through, taking a 1-1 offering into center field, scoring Saunders and knocking Tillman out of the game.
The Jays added some excitement in the ninth inning as Brad Brach gave up a double to Josh Donaldson and an intentional walk to Encarnacion – following with a strikeout to Bautista. But manager Buck Showalter pulled Brach in favor of Darren O’Day, who induced a one-pitch inning-ending double play to Russell Martin.
The game stayed knotted at two apiece until the bottom of the 11th, when Showalter made the surprising decision to bring in struggling starter Ubaldo Jimenez (8-14, 5.44 ERA, 6.43 ERA vs Toronto) over Cy Young hopeful Zach Britton – who is 47-for-47 in saves with a 0.54 regular season ERA and 0.00 ERA in 8 innings pitched vs Toronto – to face the heart of the Blue Jays order.
But the decision did not work out in Showalter’s favor – something he later admitted near verbatim – as Devon Travis and Donaldson each hit a single to put two on for Encarnacion.
On the first pitch, he sent a no-doubt hit skyward, dropped his bat, raised his fists above his head and watched it sail into the second deck of left field.
The hit, which traveled 440 feet with an exit velocity of 108.3-mph, gave Blue Jays fans the best 5.5 seconds of hang time this season.
With the win, the Blue Jays will now play a heated American League Division Series against rival Texas Rangers starting Friday. The last time the two teams met on May 15, brawls ensued, leaving just the right amount of tension for an intense and entertaining playoff series.
**The Blue Jays did lose young relief pitcher Roberto Osuna in the tenth inning when he felt a “stretch” in his shoulder but the doctors reported back with good news and with any luck, he should be good to go for the opener on Friday.
Jonathan Powell is the Managing Editor of Outside Pitch MLB and the Milwaukee Brewers writer. Follow him on Twitter @jonathannashhh.
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