5 most painful Blue Jays postseason moments in recent memory

4) A painful 'what if?' (2021)

Okay, so this one isn't technically a postseason memory. However, it's still worthy of being included, given how it played out and what could have been.

The 2021 season was a year when the Blue Jays had one of the most dangerous offenses in all of baseball. They scored the third-most runs in the Majors, while also having the fifth-best run differential.

Highlighting their offensive prowess, the Blue Jays had four players hit 100+ RBI on the year. They were the first team to achieve this feat since 2003 and historically speaking, only the 1936 Yankees have ever bettered this, with five players reaching 100 RBI that season.

The four players in question for the Blue Jays were Teoscar Hernández (116), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (111), Bo Bichette (102) and Marcus Semien (102). Guerrero in particular stood out, as he finished second in AL MVP voting, behind one Shohei Ohtani.

The Blue Jays would go in to finish the 2021 season with an impressive 91 victories. However, this wouldn't be enough to qualify for the playoffs, with them missing out agonizingly by just one game.

This was extremely frustrating, given the Blue Jays had a better record versus the AL East compared to the Red Sox and Yankees, who both finished one win ahead of them. For the Yankees specifically, the Blue Jays won the season series 11-8. (They were 9-10 versus the Red Sox.)

Further adding to the frustration, the Blue Jays did not get to play any games in Toronto until July 30, translating to 47 games without homefield advantage. This was due to ongoing travel restrictions as part of the fallout from COVID-19, but those extra 47 true home games could have made all the difference.