Reliving 4 best playoff runs in Blue Jays history while fans are stuck watching from home in 2024

2016 – The revenge on Odor and the Rangers

The Jays managed to make the postseason for the second consecutive season the following year in 2016. But for the first time in franchise history, the Jays had to take part in the one-game, winner-takes-all elimination AL Wild Card game against the Baltimore Orioles. The game was a close affair, as it remained tied at two from the fifth inning onwards. It ended up requiring extra innings to decide the match. It was then when Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter made the controversial call of using Ubaldo Jiménez instead of 2016 AL Reliever of the Year Zach Britton in the tight match. That move backfired big time as Edwin Encarnación went on to deliver the game-winning three-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning to secure a 5-2 Jays win.

That put the Jays through to the ALDS in a rematch against their newly created rivals in the Rangers. The rivalry between the two teams started the previous season when the Jays made the improbable comeback to take the 2015 ALDS 3-2 from the Rangers. It quickly escalated during the 2016 season during a regular season game between the two clubs as a result of an aggressive slide by Bautista into second base. In doing so, Rangers’ second baseman Rougned Odor took exception of it and started a heated exchange with Bautista. In the process, Odor delivered a blow to Bautista’s face as the benches emptied.

Consequently, the drama helped build up the must-see playoff matchup between the two clubs. The Rangers were hoping for redemption from the previous season whereas the Jays were looking to exact some revenge for what they did to their star player. Bautista and the Jays sure got the last laugh when they ended up sweeping the Rangers handily in three games. The main highlight came in Game 3 in Toronto with the game tied at six heading into the bottom of the 10th inning. With Josh Donaldson on second with a leadoff double and Encarnación on first from an intentional walk, Martin hit a ground ball to Rangers’ shortstop Elvis Andrus. Andrus threw the ball to Odor covering second to get the out there. But when Odor transferred the ball to first in an attempt to complete the double play, the ball went way wide, allowing Donaldson to dash all the way home to seal the win for the Jays. 

Unfortunately, the Jays couldn’t carry that huge momentum that they gained from the ALDS into the ALCS against the Cleveland Indians at the time. In fact, their entire offense suffered a huge power outage as the Indians’ pitching staff, led by the infallible reliever Andrew Miller, held the Jays to just 2 home runs and 8 total runs over five games. As a result, the Indians took the series easily 4-1, ending the Jays’ last deep playoff run to date.

Hopefully, the Jays will be able to produce some more memorable postseason runs in the near future, but for this year, they can only sit back and wait for next season.