In one of the most emotional, controversial and unusual baseball games ever played, the Toronto Blue Jays used three Texas Rangers miscues and a Jose Bautista three-run homer to secure a 6-3 victory and their spot in the American League Championship Series.
Everything happened in the seventh inning, which might actually be one of the understatements of the year, as the two teams were tied, 2-2, Wednesday.
With two outs and Rougned Odor on third base, Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin's throw back to the pitcher hit Shin-Soo Choo's bat when he was still in the batter's box. Odor broke for home plate and easily touched it before the defense could attempt to throw him out. The home plate umpire initially called the play dead, which should have stopped everything, but later reversed the decision after meeting to discuss it.
Here's the official Major League Baseball rule on the play in question, per TSN's StatsCentre:
Baseball Prospectus' Jason Collette posted a bird's eye view of Choo obstructing Martin's throw:
The controversy would cause an 18-minute delay as the umpires reviewed the play—with fans throwing debris from the stands—before Blue Jays reliever Aaron Sanchez struck out Choo to end the top half of the inning.
Cole Hamels, who took a no-decision in Texas' 6-4 win in Game 2, was in control from the start. The southpaw went 6.1 innings, allowing four hits, two walks and two earned runs with eight strikeouts—and worked out of trouble on a few occasions.
Following the controversial go-ahead run, Hamels' defense failed him in the bottom of the seventh. Martin, Kevin Pillar and Ryan Goins reached base on three consecutive errors to start the inning.
Ben Revere grounded into a force out, with pinch runner Dalton Pompey getting thrown out at the plate. Josh Donaldson hit a lazy popup just behind Odor that the second baseman misjudged, and it dropped just beyond his reach to tie the score. Odor recovered to throw Revere out at second, though, which left two on and two out.
That set the stage for Bautista's heroics, which featured one of the greatest bat flips in history, per MLB.com:
Bautista's moonshot off Rangers reliever Sam Dyson gave Toronto a three-run lead, with ESPN Stats & Info noting the Blue Jays slugger did something that hadn't been done in nearly a decade:
MLB Memes predicted that fans will eventually be able to see an in-depth look at all of this seventh-inning insanity:
Fans in Rogers Centre weren't the only ones going nuts after Bautista went yard, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca:
After the victory, Bautista told Ken Rosenthal on the Fox broadcast that this game was all about emotion (h/t Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News):
Of the six runs scored by Toronto in victory, three were unearned as a result of Texas' unusually sloppy defense. The Rangers ranked fifth in FanGraphs' defensive value (20.8) during the regular season.
Two of the errors were charged to shortstop Elvis Andrus—on a botched ground ball and a missed catch on a play at third base.
Prior to the game, Rangers manager Jeff Banister told reporters, per ESPN.com's Jean-Jacques Taylor, that situations like Wednesday's game were the reason the team acquired Hamels in July.
"It's why you go out and get top performers, elite competitors, [for] situations exactly like this," Banister said. "The comforting feeling is that we've got a guy on the mound that's going to go for us that has been here, has done it, and is quite capable of continuing to do it."
Hamels held up his end of the bargain, as he should have been out of the seventh inning unscathed with the only major blemish being an Edwin Encarnacion homer in the sixth inning.
In fact, lost in the frenzy of that seventh inning was how great both starting pitchers were. Toronto gave Marcus Stroman the ball, with the 24-year-old right-hander providing six solid innings with two runs allowed on six hits with four strikeouts.
The Blue Jays are the third team to win a best-of-five series after losing the first two games at home, joining the 2001 New York Yankees and 2012 San Francisco Giants, per ESPN Stats & Info. More good news for Toronto: Both of those teams went to the World Series, with the Giants winning it all.
Per ESPN Stats & Info, much like Bautista's blast, Encarnacion's homer was the first in this particular type of game since 2003:
Toronto is known for its prolific offense, which scored 127 more runs than any other team in baseball this season, and Encarnacion is the most prolific right-handed power hitter in the sport over the past four seasons, per Aaron Gleeman of Hardball Talk:
It took a while for the Blue Jays bats to wake up, as they were held to seven runs in the first two games of this series. They scored 19 over the last three to reach the ALCS.
The victory ended two droughts for the Blue Jays, as it's their first home playoff win and first playoff series win since the 1993 World Series, when Joe Carter provided his own fireworks.
After that early offensive lull for the Blue Jays, they are set up nicely heading into the ALCS, whether it's against the Houston Astros or Kansas City Royals. David Price, who threw 50 pitches in relief Monday, should be ready for Game 1, and R.A. Dickey is in line for Game 2.
Whatever combination manager John Gibbons goes with on the mound to start the series, the Blue Jays bats are locked in. That's bad news for whichever team winds up on the other side of the field beginning Friday night.
Post-Game Reaction
Not surprisingly, the mood in Texas' locker room after a crushing defeat was somber. Unfortunately for the Rangers, their recent history is filled with painful losses, from losing back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011 to losing the division on the final day and Wild Card Game in 2012 to missing out on the wild card by one game in 2013.
Andrus, in particular, seemed despondent, per Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post:
As far as the weird play that led to Odor scoring the brief go-ahead run in the seventh, Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos told Chisholm he felt the umpires eventually did things correctly:
Chisholm also noted on Twitter that he spoke to multiple people in the Blue Jays locker room and virtually all "agreed" the right call was made on the play.
Dyson, who was on the mound when Bautista had the bat flip to end all bat flips, was not particularly receptive to the Blue Jays star's display of emotion, per Svrluga.
"Jose needs to calm that down, just kind of respect the game a little more," Dyson said. "He’s a huge role model for the younger generation that’s coming up playing this game, and I mean he’s doing stuff that kids do in Wiffle ball games and backyard baseball. It shouldn’t be done."
In terms of the at-bat, Bautista told reporters, via Chisholm and T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com, he had a plan.
"I was looking for something up," Bautista said. "He throws hard with a sinker. He threw the first one down and I just said tee it up, and I put a great swing on it and it felt great."
There's nothing like having a plan and executing it to perfection.
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