{"id":62267,"date":"2015-10-01T18:14:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T10:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=62267"},"modified":"2016-05-31T10:29:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T14:29:30","slug":"blue-jays-clinch-al-east-split-doubleheader-with-orioles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/01\/blue-jays-clinch-al-east-split-doubleheader-with-orioles\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays clinch AL East, split doubleheader with Orioles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"With<\/a>
With a 15-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday in the opener of a doubleheader, the Toronto Blue Jays eliminated the New York Yankees from the division race and claimed its first title since 1993. (Photo from Toronto Blue Jays’ official Twitter account<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BALTIMORE \u2013 Champagne and beer was spraying everywhere. Cigars were lit, and laughter filled the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

It had been 22 years since the Toronto Blue Jays won the AL East, and they celebrated the occasion with the appropriate fanfare.<\/p>\n

Wearing shirts that read \u201cThe East Is Ours,\u201d the Blue Jays yelled and screamed with delight in an appropriate conclusion to their unstoppable, two-month run.<\/p>\n

With a 15-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday in the opener of a doubleheader, Toronto eliminated the New York Yankees from the division race<\/a><\/strong> and claimed its first title since 1993. The suspense ended quickly as the Blue Jays built a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning before adding four unearned runs in the fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the ultimate right now,\u201d manager John Gibbons said. \u201cTo be honest, we think we have more ahead of us. It was a big hurdle to get over. It\u2019s been so damn long. But I am proud of our guys from Day One. They just compete. That\u2019s all we ask. That\u2019s what happens when you have a lot of talent and they get after it every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays waited so long for this, there were two celebrations. After the first game, the players whooped and hollered and hugged around the mound. Because there was another game to be played, the alcohol and cigars were put off until after the nightcap, which the Orioles won 8-1 against Toronto\u2019s reserves.<\/p>\n

In the opener, Marcus Stroman (4-0) allowed one run and five hits with eight strikeouts in his fourth start since returning from left knee surgery.<\/p>\n

Jose Bautista hit his 40th home run, Edwin Encarnacion delivered No. 37 and Justin Smoak also connected for Toronto. Ryan Goins had a career-high five hits to help the Blue Jays win their sixth straight.<\/p>\n

Toronto was fourth in the AL East on the morning of July 29 with a 50-51 record, eight games behind the Yankees. But boosted by the acquisitions of David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, Ben Revere, LaTroy Hawkins and Mark Lowe, the Blue Jays won 42 of their next 56 games, outscoring opponents 342-200. They ended the major leagues\u2019 longest playoff drought on Sept. 26 when they clinched no worse than a wild-card berth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played good baseball,\u201d a drenched Price said. \u201cI\u2019ve done my part and so has everybody else on this team. It\u2019s not one person, it\u2019s not one trade. It\u2019s everybody with one goal in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

General manager Alex Anthopoulos insists that in late July, the goal was merely to reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt we had a real good team that underachieved to this point,\u201d he said between games. \u201cOur last two months, we were playing really good teams that we were going to chase. So, we thought we had a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stroman\u2019s exceptional pitching this month added to the surge. The right-hander has a 1.67 ERA and has beaten the Yankees twice.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays open the AL Division Series at home on Oct. 8. They are just ahead of Kansas City for best record in the AL.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re dangerous offensively. We\u2019re dangerous on the mound,\u201d catcher Russell Martin said. \u201cWe play awesome defense. So, I mean, if somebody\u2019s going to beat us, they\u2019re going to have to play tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year ago, Baltimore celebrated its first AL East title since 1997. On Wednesday, the Orioles watched their successors end an even longer wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to them. They earned it,\u201d Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. \u201cWe had something that people came after, and they took it from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was Baltimore\u2019s first game since being officially eliminated from playoff contention, and it showed. Seven pitchers combined to issue 10 walks and the Orioles committed four errors despite coming in with the best fielding percentage in the majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any form of life, when you take hope out of the picture it really challenges you mentally and emotionally,\u201d Showalter said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t respond to that in the first game.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Miguel Gonzalez (9-12) walked three and gave up four runs in 3 2\/3 innings, errant throws by pitcher Jason Garcia and Davis on the same play fueled a fifth-inning uprising that turned the game into a rout.<\/p>\n

The loss ended any hope the Orioles had of salvaging a winning season.<\/p>\n

In the second game, Chris Davis homered twice to take over the major league home run lead with 45. Manny Machado hit his 31st off Ryan Tepera (0-2) to break up a scoreless duel in the seventh.<\/p>\n

Kevin Gausman (4-7) had a career-high 10 strikeouts over eight innings. Toronto starter R.A. Dickey pitched five innings in his final tuneup before the postseason.<\/p>\n

Trainer\u2019s room<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blue Jays: Tulowitzki (back, shoulder) is rapidly mending and could return before the postseason<\/a><\/strong>, manager John Gibbons said.<\/p>\n

Orioles: CF Adam Jones remains sidelined with back problems. He\u2019s played in one game since Sept. 20.<\/p>\n

On deck<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s series finale was moved up to 12:05 p.m. EDT from 7:05 because of the threat of rain. Gibbons scratched Price and did not announce his starter. Rookie Tyler Wilson (2-2, 3.60 ERA) goes for Baltimore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE \u2013 Champagne and beer was spraying everywhere. Cigars were lit, and laughter filled the clubhouse. It had been 22 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":62268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-62267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-original","mauthors-david-ginsburg","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}