For the first time in 22 years, the Toronto Blue Jays are headed to the playoffs.
The Jays clinched at least the second wild card spot last night, after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays. In a hilarious twist, there wasn’t a celebration afterwards because nobody figured out the math correctly.
The Jays clinched Friday night when they beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 and the Minnesota Twins lost to Detroit. It was believed that both the Twins and the L.A. Angels needed to lose on Friday to ensure the Jays secured at least the second wild-card spot.
But as first reported by Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi, although the Angels won on Friday, the number of remaining head-to-head games between AL West teams guarantees the Jays a spot. Only two of the Texas Rangers, Houston Astros and Angels can reach the Jays’ 88-win total, so with Minnesota now out of the equation, the Jays can do no worse than the second wild-card spot.
But by Saturday morning it was not yet official and the Jays’ own Twitter account seemed unaware the team had ended their long-standing drought. “With a win today, we will officially clinch a 2015 playoff berth!” the team tweeted before 9 a.m.
Soooooo… They’re in!
The Jays getting into the postseason ends the longest current playoff drought in Major League Baseball.
Now that #BlueJays have clinched playoff berth, focus entirely on AL East. Magic number: 6.
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) September 26, 2015
But of course, Toronto has more than a modest wild card berth on their radar. Entering play on Saturday, the Blue Jays sit 4 games up on the New York Yankees for first in the AL East with just 9 games left in the regular season. The Jays are also just 1 game back of the Kansas City Royals for the best record in the entire American League.
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