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GOING WILD: Blue Jays ensure playoff baseball returns to Toronto this week

Blue Jays' Matt Chapman, left, celebrates with Cavan Biggio after scoring in the second inning against the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022.
Blue Jays' Matt Chapman, left, celebrates with Cavan Biggio after scoring in the second inning against the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. Photo by Greg Fiume /Getty Images

BALTIMORE — It’s been six long years for the Blue Jays on so many levels of frustration and rebuild.

There was a rebuild that began in earnest in 2018. There was the COVID-19 pandemic. And finally, a heart-breaking near miss a year ago.

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But following a Monday night win here at Camden Yards coupled with the Detroit Tigers upsetting the Mariners in Seattle in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, playoff baseball is returning to Canada.

The results on Monday locked up home-field advantage for the Jays in a best-of-three wild card playoff series against the M’s that will begin Friday at the Rogers Centre.

The Jays did their part in securing the home date by winning each of their last four games and hoping the Mariners would falter.

The surging Jays got just that as the Tigers hung on for a 4-1 win, hours after Toronto dispatched the Orioles 5-1 on a raw, soggy night at Camden Yards.

The results cemented home-field advantage for a Jays team that is heading into the playoffs with momentum and confidence.

“We want to go home and we want to play the wild card series in Toronto,” said Jays second baseman Whit Merrifield, who has been pistol hot the past two weeks.

Securing home-field advantage is a huge accomplishment on multiple levels for a Jays team that believes it can be a huge factor in the American League tournament.

A win over Seattle would send them to an American League divisional round series against the powerhouse Houston Astros.

To their credit, the Jays took advantage with a strong record through September and into October to control the wild card options.

The clinching of the top wild card spot came a year to the day after the Jays fell a game short of the playoffs, a crushing blow given the potential of a young and upwardly moving team.

In terms of logistics, the quick securing of the top spot allows Jays manager John Schneider to rest and utilize his players at will over the final two days of the regular season, helping ensure a rested and ready group faces the Mariners at the Rogers Centre on Friday.

The Jays did their part to secure home field for the cut-throat opening round by recording a 5-1 win over the Orioles in a sloppy night at Baltimore’s Camden Yards. Officials declared a rain delay with two out in the top of the eighth and eventually wiped out the remainder of the game following a 51-minute delay.

  1. Blue Jays second baseman Whit Merrifield waits for a pitch to the Baltimore Orioles during the fourth inning on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, in Baltimore.

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  2. Jays starting pitcher Jose Berrios delivers a pitch against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards yesterday. USA TODAY SPORTS

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  3. Jose Berrios of the Toronto Blue Jays reacts against the against the New York Yankees in the fifth inning during their MLB game at the Rogers Centre on September 27, 2022 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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