Blue Jays Advance to ALDS and put an end to the Orioles Season

By Djack

What a way to start off the 2016 playoffs, this is what October baseball is all about, the Toronto Blue Jays will have their rematch with the Texas Rangers. Marcus Stroman took the mound against Charles Tillman in a battle of AL East team's that are built very similarly. These are two team's that have deadly lineups with a ton of power, both have mediocre starting pitching, and they both have lock down closers. Jose Bautista got the scoring started in the second inning with a solo homerun, reminding everyone of what a beast he is in the postseason, how could you forget that bat flip though so we didn't really need reminding. The Orioles came back with a little home run shot of their own in the 4th when Trumbo hit a 2 run shot to give the Orioles the lead. That lead wouldn't last long as the Blue Jays would tie the game back up in the 5th on a Ezequiel Carrera single. After that, Showalter took Tillman out of the game to turn it over to the Orioles bullpen. Tillman only went 4 1/3 innings so it definitley wasn't the quality start they needed, but in a game like this they knew all of their bullpen was available so he didn't need to go deep into this game. Stroman on the other hand went 6 strong, he showed that he strives in the big moment really coming up with a huge start in the biggest game of the season. The hot discussion of the night was when were these two teams going to turn it over to their amazing closers, well the Blue Jays would bring their closer in the 9th inning to hold the tie to give the Blue Jays a chance at the walk off. He would complete that inning and went into the next inning before leaving due to feeling some pain in his arm. Buck Showalter on the other hand kept waiting to put Zach Britton in the game, I guess he wanted to wait until the Orioles had the lead so he could close it out, but he really should've put him in during the 11th inning. With the game still tied at 2, Ezequiel Carrera, Devon Travis, Josh Donaldson, and Edwin Encarnacion were due up, Buck decided to put in Ubaldo Jimenez instead of Britton. This would ultimately be the fatal mistake, Travis got a base hit that was followed up by another base hit from Donaldson, putting runners on the corner with one out. Edwin Encarnacion came to the plate, he was the AL RBI leader for a reason, he put a ball in the left field upper deck as the Blue Jays walk off right into a series with the Texas Rangers. What a series that is going to be, secretly every baseball fan knows they would've much rather seen Blue Jays play the Rangers instead of the Orioles playing the Rangers. This is a win for baseball fans, nothing like a rivalry being renewed, I can't get enough of these two teams going at it. That'll be the best divisional series in the playoffs by far, Roughen Odor vs Jose Bautista round 2 will hopefully happen, and maybe we will get to see a couple more bat flips. Thank you October baseball for giving this pointless month meaning.