Blue Jays finally bid farewell to Buffalo and prepare to return home

The Blue Jays hopefully played the last of their 49 games at Sahlen Field on Wednesday. The next stop: back home in Toronto

Shortly after 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday night, the Toronto Blue Jays had their 661-day odyssey come to a refreshing end.

Like Homer’s eponymous hero, the Blue Jays have been put to the test the last season-and-a-half and forced to endure challenges that would’ve once seemed unimaginable. All for one simple goal: to return home. It didn’t take 10 years, but the Blue Jays will finally get their wish next Friday.

The first step was saying goodbye to the city that took them in. The Blue Jays played their final game at Sahlen Field in Buffalo on Wednesday, a 7-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox. While some games it seemed like fans of the opposing team outnumbered those in blue, the fans in Buffalo embraced the team for the short time the Blue Jays called the city home. They gave them support while the club waited for Canadian travel restrictions to be lifted.

The club returned that love. Blue Jays players enjoyed hitting at Sahlen Field and will miss its comforting confines. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has the second-highest batting average (.364, behind only Nick Castellanos) at home this season among players with at least 150 plate appearances. He’s 22nd in the league on the road. Of his 32 home runs, 21 have come while playing in either Buffalo or Dunedin. His OPS at home is 300 points higher than on the road.

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Bo Bichette, Guerrero’s fellow All-Star, is batting 33 points higher at home with five more extra-base hits despite playing more games on the road. Marcus Semien’s average at home improves by 24 points, his OPS by more than 100 points. The Blue Jays as a team lead the league with a .277 average at home; that declines to .252 while on the road, which still ranks fourth. The club took advantage of the favorable dimensions of Sahlen Field, with the power alleys measuring five feet shorter in left field and eight feet in right field.

But so did the opposing hitters. The Blue Jays team ERA is 60 points lower on the road (3.73 to 4.32). Most importantly, the club is .500 at home this season and 26-22 on the road. This dichotomy, though, isn’t universal. Robbie Ray actually has a better ERA at home than on the road (3.11 to 3.14), despite giving up four runs in five innings on Wednesday.

Blue Jays thank the fans in Buffalo for the hospitality the last two seasons

Barred from returning home for what will nearly be 670 days, the Blue Jays needed a place to play and Buffalo gave it to them. Sahlen Field underwent significant renovations to be Major League-ready. The cardboard cutouts in the stands were turned into actual paying customers who came to cheer on their team (although that wasn’t always the Blue Jays). The club came out of the dugout to salute the fans on Wednesday, with the message “Thank you Buffalo” displayed on the video board in center field. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but the team and the city made it work.

“I thought it was a great idea by the Blue Jays today to come out and thank the fans because it’s been a good ride here,” manager Charlie Montoyo said on Wednesday. “We’re never going to forget that this was the place we clinched the playoffs last year, and we don’t want to forget that. And, again, the fans have been great.”

The Blue Jays trucks are already on the road preparing to move back to the Rogers Centre. July 30, when the Blue Jays host the Kansas City Royals, is still more than a week away. But, after nearly two years away, the long-suffering fans in Toronto will be glad to wait.

George Springer has never played in Toronto as a Blue Jay. Neither has Semien or Hyun Jin Ryu. Next Friday, they’ll finally be able to get greeted by the thunderous home crowd.