A playoff push to remember for the Blue Jays?

Adamo Marinelli

September 29, 2021

     The Blue Jays made the playoffs for the first time since their dominant 2016 season in a shortened 60 game campaign last year thanks to an expanded 16 team playoff bracket. This year, the Blue Jays hoped to use their talent to make the 10 team playoffs in a 162 game season.

     This season has been a wild ride for the Blue Jays. But overall, it has been a great one. 

     The Blue Jays offense showed sparks of excellence last season and it has only gotten better this season. 

     The Blue Jays added a lot of talent to their offense like George Springer and Marcus Semien, two players who can provide a spark on offense and can be a veteran presence to a young core consisting of guys like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Cavan Biggio, and Teoscar Hernandez among others. 

     Guerrero Jr. has had an MVP-caliber season so far. At one point, he led the league in home runs, runs batted in and hits, and was going for the triple crown. He now is second in home runs with 46, second in hits with 183, and is seventh in runs batted in with 106. 

     It’s not just Guerrero Jr. who is talented offensively. Marcus Semien is fourth in the league in home runs with 43. Also, guys like Teoscar Hernandez and Bo Bichette can also hit homers regularly with 31 and 28 respectively this season. 

     The Blue Jays also have four players with over 100 runs batted in. Hernandez has 112, Guerrero has 106, Semien has 101 and Bichette also has 101.

     This team is loaded with youth and talent, especially on offense, and can beat any team on any given night as they’ve shown several times this season. 

     The Blue Jays spent most of the season sitting at around .500% going on winning streaks that would put them slightly above .500% and losing streaks that would put them slightly below .500%. 

      Given that they played their home games this season in Buffalo - they played in Buffalo last season too - they played pretty well, with their offense and starting pitching excelling on a normal basis. 

      The major problem was the inconsistency of their bullpen, which struggled to close games out - they had 17 losses while leading or tied after six innings -, struggled to keep games close in later innings for their offense, and which gave up many runs in late-game innings.  

     Their manager Charlie Montoyo was also criticized for his decisions regarding the bullpen. On several occasions, he put in an inexperienced pitcher to close out the game or took out someone who was playing well up to that point. The point being, the bullpen was the demise of the team thus far and needed fixing if the Blue Jays wanted any chance of making the playoffs.

     At the deadline, the Blue Jays made several moves to address their bullpen issues. Trevor Richards and especially Adam Cimber have been excellent down the stretch for the Blue Jays adding some extra depth to their core consisting of Kirby Yates, Jordan Romano, David Phelps, and Julian Merryweather. Joakim Soria has also been a great addition and can still pitch very well despite being 37. But left-handed pitcher Brad Hand did not pan out as the Blue Jays had hoped. He posted a 7.27 ERA and allowed 13 hits, three homers, and three walks over 8 2/3 innings in 11 appearances for the Blue Jays.

     The Blue Jays played 99 games this season in Buffalo. They came back to Toronto, on July 30th - trade deadline day - as energized as ever with a record of 51-48, right in the thick of the wild card race. 

     With their revamped bullpen closing out games, their offense rolling and their starting pitching rotation meeting and even exceeding expectations, the Blue Jays looked very good since their return home where they have gone 37-33. 

     That record is impressive, but in that time frame, the Blue Jays were better than they looked. They struggled in the middle of August losing 10 of 15 games most of which saw Ryu as the starting pitcher, but after making the switch to Robby Ray and Alex Manoah, the Blue Jays ended August and started September winning 15 of 17 games, going on a run that involved sweeping a four-game series against red-hot New York Yankees team in New York with Gerrit Cole pitching and scoring 44 runs in three dominant wins against the Baltimore Orioles. The offense exploded in that stretch, Ray played extremely well and the bullpen did their job closing out games with the help of their new additions. 

     That run got the Blue Jays back into the wild card race and it got their fanbase riled up, thinking about a return to the playoffs. After their dominant 8-1 win over the AL East division-leading Tampa Bay Rays on September 13, they had a one-game lead on the Boston Red Sox and the Yankees for the first wild card spot. 

      After the Blue Jays’ crucial, albeit dramatic 6-5 win over the Yankees on September 29, 2021, they now sit at 88-70 on the season, one game back of the 89-69 Red Sox - who own the second AL wildcard spot - and two games back of the 90-68 Yankees - who own the first AL wildcard spot. 

      With four games left on their calendar, it is a must-win for the Blue Jays down the stretch. If they can beat the Yankees tomorrow evening and then sweep their final three-game series against the Orioles, not only could the Blue Jays make the playoffs, but they could be the number one wild card team in the AL, which means hosting a playoff game at Rogers Center in front of 30,000 electric fans.

The stakes are high, the bar is set, let’s see what happens. The players are ready for postseason baseball in Toronto and suffice to say, so are the fans.