Blue Jays clinch playoff spot for ninth time in franchise history

The Toronto Blue Jays are heading back to the playoffs.

By way of the Baltimore Orioles loss on Thursday afternoon to the Boston Red Sox, the Blue Jays have officially clinched a spot in the 2022 MLB playoffs.

Baltimore isn’t completely out of the postseason race, but it’s looking like the American League playoff teams are just about set, with just positioning left to jockey for.

Barring a miracle push from the Orioles, Toronto will be heading to the American League Wild Card series against either Tampa Bay or Seattle, which kicks off next Friday, with (up to) three games all being played in the same city.

“This is what we work for all year, all offseason,” Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah told Daily Hive this week in an exclusive interview.  “Everyone goes into spring training with aspirations to win a World Series. And, you know, five, six, months later, we’re right here, we’re in the driver’s seat.”

Game 1 would be on Friday, October 7; Game 2 on Saturday, October 8; and an “if-necessary” Game 3 on Sunday, October 9.

Toronto currently sits two games up on Tampa Bay.

The winner of each of the two Wild Card series in each league will then move on to face the top divisional winners. Should Toronto win their Wild Card postseason series, they’ll head to the American League Divisional Series (ALDS) where they’d face either the Houston Astros or New York Yankees.

The Blue Jays last qualified for the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, where 16 of the 30 major league teams made the postseason. Toronto was swept in two games by the Rays.

If Toronto does manage to host playoff games this year, it’d be the team’s first playoff action at the Rogers Centre since the 2016 season, where they fell 4-1 to Cleveland in the team’s last appearance in the American League Championship Series (ALCS).

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