After taking down the storied New York Yankees in their own ballpark in their American League Division Series on Wednesday, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider was ready to revel in the triumph.
“Start spreading the news,” Schneider said while popping a bottle of bubbly to set off the Blue Jays’ jubilant celebration inside their Yankee Stadium clubhouse.
With the party under way, the familiar lyrics from Frank Sinatra’s version of New York, New York — the Yankees’ long-time victory anthem — sounded in the background as roaring Toronto players sprayed each other with booze in the Bronx.
Photo: AP
This time, it was their time.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr and George Springer each drove in a run, while eight Toronto pitchers shut down the Yankees in a 5-2 victory that sent the Blue Jays to the American League Championship Series for the first time in nine years.
“Kind of fitting that it took everyone to win today,” said Schneider, his hair and T-shirt soaked.
Photo: Brad Penner / Imagn Images
Nathan Lukes provided a two-run single and Addison Barger had three of Toronto’s 12 hits as the pesky Blue Jays, fouling off tough pitches and consistently putting the ball in play, bounced right back after blowing a five-run lead in their loss on Tuesday.
AL East champions Toronto, wearing their lucky caps with the white panels, took the best-of-five Division Series 3-1 and are to host Game 1 in the best-of-seven ALCS on Sunday against the Detroit Tigers or the Seattle Mariners.
Those teams were to decide their playoff series in Game 5 in Seattle yesterday.
Photo: Lon Horwedel / Imagn Images
“It feels great,” Guerrero said through a translator. “Everybody was just together since the first day. You could tell that something special was there.”
Guerrero was something special himself. The US$500 million slugger batted .529 with three homers and nine RBIs in the ALDS, tormenting the Yankees in the mold of David Ortiz, Ken Griffey Jr and George Brett decades ago.
Jeff Hoffman retired Austin Wells with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning and got four outs to earn his first post-season save, advancing the worst-to-first Blue Jays to their eighth ALCS.
Photo: AFP
Toronto’s only pennants came in 1992 and 1993, when the club won consecutive MLB World Series crowns. A season ago, the Blue Jays finished last in the AL East at 74-88.
“Maybe some people don’t believe in the team through the year, but I always remind everyone that we have an entire country behind us that believe in us, and hopefully we can get the World Series back to Canada,” Guerrero said.
Ryan McMahon homered and Aaron Judge had an RBI single for the wild-card Yankees, unable to stave off elimination for a fourth time this post-season as they failed to repeat as AL champions.
Photo: AFP
Despite a terrific playoff performance from Judge following his previous October troubles, the 33-year-old superstar and team captain remains without a World Series ring. New York are still chasing their 28th title and first since 2009.
“We got beat here. Credit to the Blue Jays,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “They took it to us this series.”
New York tied Toronto for the AL’s best regular-season record at 94-68, but lost a head-to-head tiebreaker for the division title. In the end, the Yankees never could get past the Blue Jays — going 1-8 in Toronto this year and losing 11 of 17 meetings overall.
Judge extended New York’s season one last time with an RBI single off the left-wall with two outs in the ninth. Hoffman then struck out Cody Bellinger and happy Blue Jays players poured out of the dugout to bounce in unison near the mound.
About 25 minutes later, a group of Toronto fans was still chanting: “Let’s go Blue Jays” behind the third-base dugout.
“I think we more than showed what we can do in this series between all that pitching, defense, everything,” Schneider said. “The guys in here know what we’re capable of and we don’t really care what anyone else thinks.”
Tigers 9, Mariners 3
Riley Greene, Javier Baez and Gleyber Torres each hammered home runs to help Detroit even their ALDS against Seattle at two wins apiece. Baez drove in four runs.
Tigers starter Casey Mize was pulled after three innings of one-run ball and replaced by Tyler Holton, who teamed up with three other relievers to allow only two runs and six hits over the final six innings. Troy Melton (1-1) gave up two hits over three scoreless innings.
Phillies 8, Dodgers
Kyle Schwarber hit two home runs, including a mammoth shot to spark a three-run fourth inning as Philadelphia avoided elimination in the National League Division Series with a victory over hosts Los Angeles.
Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez (1-0) combined to allow one run over seven innings, while J.T. Realmuto added a home run as the Phillies rolled in Game 3 to make the series 2-1.
Cubs 4, Brewers 3
Pete Crow-Armstrong ripped a two-run single to highlight a four-run first inning, helping host Chicago stave off elimination with a win over Milwaukee in Game 3 of their NLDS to make the series score 2-1.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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