After a summer in Sahlen Field, the Toronto Blue Jays' season is over and their playoff destination is set.
The Jays will play the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League's best-of-3 wild-card round starting Tuesday after closing their seven-week run in downtown Buffalo with a 7-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday afternoon.
Toronto had a 4-1 lead in the game but Tanner Roark gave up three runs in the fourth inning and Shun Yamaguchi yielded three more in the fifth. The Jays finished the season 32-28 overall and 17-9 at Sahlen Field. They could have landed the No. 5 seed with a win and a loss by the New York Yankees to the Miami Marlins in the Bronx.
Instead, the Jays were scheduled to head out of Buffalo for St. Petersburg, Fla., late Sunday night. And while the Rays are the No. 1 seed and finished with the AL's best record, the Jays are not going to be an easy out. Toronto was 4-6 against Tampa Bay this year -- but three of the losses were in extra innings and two others were by one run.
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The game marked the end of Buffalo's first foray into Major League Baseball since the city's Federal League team played in 1915. The Bisons were in the National League from 1879-1885. The Blue Jays were unable to play their home games in Toronto this season due to provincial restrictions on travel in and out of Ontario because of the pandemic, and chose to play in the home of their Triple-A affiliate after a drawn-out process that stretched past the opening of the regular season.
Things started very well for the Blue Jays in their final game here. In the Baltimore second, Toronto right fielder Jonathan Davis climbed over the wall by the foul pole to rub a home run from Cedric Mullins. In the third, the Blue Jays took a 4-1 lead with a three-run rally as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. belted a solo homer to right-center and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove a two-run shot to left.
But Toronto starter Roark was immediately touched for three runs in the top of fourth, an inning that saw center fielder Randal Grichuk misplay Hanser Alberto's leadoff liner for a three-base error and fail to snare Mullins shot to the left-center gap, which went for a two-run triple. In the fifth, Yamaguchi gave up three straight hits and the Orioles cashed them all in. Rio Ruiz's RBI double snapped the 4-4 tie.
Gurriel finished 4 for 4 and a triple shy of the cycle in the game, with two doubles and a single in addition to his home run. That made him a .300 hitter for the season at .307.
In spite of the loss, the Blue Jays finished their final homestand in Buffalo with a 5-2 record. That included three wins in four games against the Yankees that allowed them to clinch their first postseason berth since 2016.
