{"id":207717,"date":"2025-10-12T15:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/207717\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T15:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T15:00:08","slug":"alcs-game-1-live-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/207717\/","title":{"rendered":"ALCS Game 1 live updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m the lucky guy who was standing at the plate, but I\u2019m glad that I came through,\u201d Bautista said at his induction to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame this summer<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But of course, no one moment can happen without a whole bunch of smaller moments that go into making it happen.<\/p>\n

As we approach the 10th anniversary of \u201cThe Bat Flip,\u201d which falls on Oct. 14, the Star spoke to the players involved and the people around them so we could tell the story using their words.<\/p>\n

Pull Quote<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had to be him. Controversial figure, the face of the franchise through some lean years. It wouldn\u2019t have been the same if somebody else had hit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Started from the bottom<\/p>\n

The team had been mired in mediocrity for over two decades. Things were looking up when general manager Alex Anthopoulos made two huge and transformative trades that landed stars including defending National League Cy Young award winner R.A. Dickey and borderline Hall of Famer Mark Buehrle\u00a0before the 2013 season. The moves led to Las Vegas declaring\u00a0the Jays the off-season favourites to win the World Series but they stumbled out of the gate and finished last. The next year, they were in first place on Canada Day but fell out of the race after doing nothing at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

In November of 2014, Anthopoulos again made sweeping changes, trading star players Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie, among others, and bringing in catcher Russell Martin and third baseman Josh Donaldson.<\/p>\n

The entire identity of the team had changed in less than a month. But with big names came some big personalities, and there were already some big personalities left over.<\/p>\n

John Gibbons, manager: \u201cIt was a confident bunch. It was a high-maintenance bunch\u00a0\u2014 we had some wingnuts, there\u2019s no doubt about it, and some guys who wore their hearts on their sleeves, emotional guys\u00a0\u2014 but I think that\u2019s what made us good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"martin-donaldson.JPG\"<\/p>\n

Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin, left, and third baseman Josh Donaldson remember how exciting it was in the clubhouse at the 2015 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Todd Korol\/Toronto Star<\/p>\n

Alex Anthopoulos, general manager: \u201cTo me, strong personality doesn\u2019t mean challenging or difficult. It means real belief in their convictions and their work ethic and demanding of excellence. You take Russell Martin. He demands work ethic and respect. (Troy Tulowitzki, who arrived in July 2015) the same way. You\u2019re not going to not pull your end of the rope around those guys because they will not be afraid to say something to you, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan Goins, infielder: \u201c(People say) it had to be miserable to be in the clubhouse with so many superstars with egos and this and that, where it probably was the best clubhouse I was ever in, with the best players that I ever played with, a lot of them multi-time all-stars, and they just came together all for one common goal and that was to win a game that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slow start<\/p>\n

As welcome as the changes were, the team got off to another slow start and was just 23-29 at the end of May, though only 3\u00bd games out of first place.<\/p>\n

Anthopoulos: \u201cWhen Josh Donaldson said \u2018it\u2019s not the try league, it\u2019s the get-it-done league,\u2019 he\u2019s talking to all the players, but I view it as \u2018hey, I\u2019m part of this too, I\u2019ve got to do my end, I\u2019ve got to get my part done.\u2019 All I hear about is \u2018Russell Martin, he\u2019s been in the post-season every single year.\u2019 I\u2019m not going to be the GM who brings him in and we don\u2019t make the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bautista: \u201cWe had a great team that was maybe underachieving, if you want to use that word, because with the quality of players you would think that we\u2019d be better than a .500 team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goins: \u201cWe were a frustrating team. We had all the names, we had all the accolades, we had it all, we just never put it together consistently. We\u2019d have a good week and then a really bad week. You see the guys we have, you can look around the room and be like, why are we not whupping everybody\u2019s ass?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Pillar, outfielder: \u201cI remember very nonchalantly, casually, asking Russ\u00a0(Martin) on a bus ride, like, are we going to be OK? And he looked at me dead in the face. He said, \u2018I\u2019ve been doing this a long time. I\u2019ve never missed the playoffs. We\u2019re going to be fine.\u2019 And I was like, holy sh\u2014. OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything changed in the week leading up to the July 31 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

\"tshirts.JPG\"<\/p>\n

Not long after Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos announces his blockbuster deadline trades, the Jays shop was filled with their new players\u2019 jerseys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steve Russell \/ Toronto Star file photo<\/p>\n

Wild week<\/p>\n

In the wee hours of July 28, Anthopoulos traded for all-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and reliever LaTroy Hawkins from the Colorado Rockies. Two days later, he picked up ace left-hander David Price from the Detroit Tigers. On deadline day, outfielder and leadoff hitter Ben Revere and reliever Mark Lowe were acquired.<\/p>\n

\"Tulowitzki-Donaldson.JPG\"<\/p>\n

Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (left) celebrate Donaldson\u2019s walk-off homer\u00a0 on July 31, 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cole Burston \/ Toronto Star file photo<\/p>\n

Russell Martin, catcher: \u201cIt was just super exciting. I don\u2019t remember being on a team where we added that many big pieces. It was like, oh my gosh, we just got a PlayStation and an Xbox, you know? Nowadays it would be like a brand new set of clubs. It\u2019s just like the best Christmas ever, right? You got everything that you wanted, that was on your Christmas list. We got another big bat. Hall of Fame calibre shortstop. One of the best pitchers in the game, in Price. Solidified our bullpen. Catalyst at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Donaldson, third baseman: \u201cWhen Alex made all those trades \u2026 I just remember walking into the clubhouse that day and I was just like \u2018I can\u2019t believe this is our team. This is unbelievable.\u2019 We have all-stars and future all-stars all throughout the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bautista: \u201cIt was a resilient group that was a little bit frustrated up to that point. It was a group of guys that was really determined to win no matter what, even though we weren\u2019t playing well, and when the team gets reinforced like that, it just puts you on a superbooster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deadline lit a massive spark, and the Blue Jays rolled through the rest of the season, going 42-14 until they clinched their first division title since 1993 with a 15-2 win in Baltimore on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

Donaldson: \u201cI don\u2019t remember losing in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bautista: \u201cIt was the most fun baseball I\u2019ve ever played in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"david-price.JPG\"<\/p>\n

Blue Jays pitcher David Price celebrates with teammates after Toronto clinched the AL East on Sept. 30 against the Orioles.<\/p>\n

Patrick Semansky \/ AP file photo<\/p>\n

The Jays were in the playoffs for the first time in 22 years and immediately took it on the chin from the American League West champion Texas Rangers, losing the first two games of their best-of-five division series at home. But they rebounded to take both games in Texas and came home for a winner-take-all Game 5.<\/p>\n

Tension was high immediately as the Rangers scored a run in the first inning and Shin Soo-Choo doubled the lead with a third-inning solo home run, while the Jays had trouble getting anything going against Texas ace Cole Hamels.<\/p>\n

Bautista got one run back with a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the third, but Hamels retired the next eight hitters in a row before Edwin Encarnaci\u00f3n crushed a dramatic game-tying home run in the bottom of the sixth.<\/p>\n

In the top of the seventh, Aar\u00f3n S\u00e1nchez took over from Marcus Stroman and gave up a leadoff single to Rougned Odor. A bunt got Odor to second, a ground ball moved him to third and, with two out, all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Wildest inning in MLB history<\/p>\n

Jeff Banister, Texas Rangers manager: \u201cOdor\u2019s at third base and one of my all-time favourite players in baseball (who) I had in Pittsburgh, Russell Martin, caught a pitch, goes to throw it back, hits the knob of the bat. Odor heads up, scores, the umpires send him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin: \u201cIt was kind of like that Bill Buckner moment, almost, for me where I could have been remembered as the guy who messed up the season for the Blue Jays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the umpires did immediately send Odor back to third base, that wasn\u2019t the right call and they knew it.<\/p>\n

Dale Scott, home plate umpire and crew chief: \u201cI short-circuited in that situation because I wasn\u2019t\u00a0\u2014 I certainly wasn\u2019t expecting it, but that rule came up (he had had a situation the year before where a batter inadvertently kicked a ball in the dirt after striking out) and I go \u2018no, no, no, that\u2019s dead, nobody advances.\u2019 As I\u2019m walking out with my hands up, and my mind\u2019s going a thousand miles an hour, all of a sudden I was thinking \u2018wait a minute, wait a minute, that\u2019s not dead. I have my hands up, I\u2019m not sure why, but that\u2019s not dead.\u2019 So immediately I was pretty confident that I had killed a live ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"john<\/p>\n

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons disputes a controversial call during the wild seventh inning in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS.<\/p>\n

Steve Russell\/Toronto Star file photo<\/p>\n

Geddy Lee, Rush front man and Jays superfan: \u201cNone of us knew what had happened, sitting behind the plate, because we didn\u2019t have the privilege of the play-by-play announcer, so we were trying to figure out what happened. The ball just scooted out and the run came home and all of a sudden the crowd got real angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott: \u201cI told the (other umpires), I said \u2018listen, here\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do. I\u2019m going to score this run, and then I\u2019ll take care of John (Gibbons).\u2019 Because I had a feeling he might be upset, but I knew even though I had called time, it didn\u2019t affect the play. If I had never called time, the exact same thing was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott pointed to the plate, sending Odor across with the go-ahead run, and Rogers Centre exploded.<\/p>\n

Scott: \u201cWe got the play right and I was like horse manure getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banister: \u201cWhat ensued after that, the cans, the cups, everything that could be thrown on the field was thrown on the field. I understand the passion. I tell players all the time, \u2018there\u2019s only two things that a fan can invest in their team, that\u2019s their money and their passion,\u2019 and I love passionate fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Shulman, play-by-play broadcaster: \u201cI texted my parents and my sons (who were in the stands) and said \u2018listen guys, if they lose this game, there could be a riot.\u2019 That was a very angry crowd, and I think what was on the mind of a lot of people was \u2018they\u2019re screwing us.\u2019 I said \u2018if they lose the game, stay in your seats. They might riot outside the ballpark.\u2019 I\u2019d never seen anything like this in Toronto. I said \u2018stay in your seats, I\u2019ll come get you. We\u2019ll go home together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee: \u201cIt got wild, man. People started pelting beers. Where I was sitting, beer cans were starting to land all around us and I feared for my friend, who was 20 years older than me. I\u2019ve never seen a Toronto audience act like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott: \u201cWith all the chaos that was going on, and (Gibbons) arguing and everything, I noticed that Russell Martin never said a word. He just was standing there. I\u2019ve had history with Russell\u00a0\u2014 we haven\u2019t seen eye to eye on pitches and certain things\u00a0\u2014 Russell is not afraid to voice his opinion. He never said a word. And in my mind, as all this was going on, I was thinking \u2018whoa, if he had thought that I had grossly misinterpreted anything, it\u2019s not like him not to say anything.\u2019 Didn\u2019t say a word. And in the back of my mind, I\u2019m going \u2018if nothing else, it\u2019s not tangible, I can\u2019t bring this up, but that\u2019s proof right there I got this thing right\u2019 because trust me, he would have said something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin: \u201cI knew it was a live ball. And I knew how big of an unintentional mistake it was. So I was in shock. But I know what\u2019s going to happen. This run is going to end up scoring, then they\u2019re going to have the lead. How unlucky am I right now? And then obviously the crowd goes crazy, nobody\u2019s happy because the initial call was no run and then they bring the runner in and that was the right call. And he\u2019s right. If it wasn\u2019t the right call, I would have lost it right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"beer<\/p>\n

A beer can falls near Russell Martin as fans got upset by the umpire\u2019s ruling that allowed the Rangers to score.<\/p>\n

Steve Russell \/ Toronto Star file photo<\/p>\n

There\u00a0was a long delay as the umpires discussed the situation with their supervisors in New York, spoke to both managers multiple times and waited as the stadium crew cleaned up the garbage on the field.<\/p>\n

Martin: \u201cI remember this empty feeling and being, I felt like I was alone. At that moment, it felt like I was there by myself in the stadium with nobody else there. That\u2019s how much I felt distant from the actual game. I felt like I\u2019m on an island by myself for a little while there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jays were livid, but after S\u00e1nchez struck out Choo to end the inning, they went back to their dugout with resolve.<\/p>\n

Goins: \u201cWe were only down one and every guy was like, we\u2019re getting it back right here. This isn\u2019t how we\u2019re going to f\u2014king lose, we\u2019re not losing this way.\u2019 People were saying that. You just felt the energy. It wasn\u2019t like we came in (saying) that\u2019s f\u2014ked up, they don\u2019t want us to win, the league \u2026 you know how it can get. This isn\u2019t how we\u2019re going out. Not with what we\u2019ve come from, what we did in the second half, this isn\u2019t it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, the bottom of the seventh happened.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Martin: \u201cWhen they talk about the baseball gods, it was like we didn\u2019t deserve to lose this game on that. It\u2019s a non-baseball play, right? And it\u2019s like the baseball gods got involved somehow, right. And oh man, that was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin led off with a routine ground ball to shortstop that Elvis Andrus booted. Pillar was next.<\/p>\n

Pillar: \u201cAside from obviously being furious about what happened, I was honestly more concerned about that frigging guy (Hamels) that I had to face who had struck me out two times before.\u00a0I felt like I had really no chance against him. I\u2019m a little shocked in that moment (that) I wasn\u2019t asked to bunt. They don\u2019t ask me to bunt, and there was not even an ounce of heroic thoughts. It was like, \u2018I will not strike out. I will do whatever it takes to put the ball in play.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Pillar hit a ground ball to first. Mitch Moreland fielded it and turned to throw to second to get Martin, but he bounced it and Andrus couldn\u2019t come up with the ball.<\/p>\n

\"Elvis<\/p>\n

Rangers infielder Elvis Andrus fails to cleanly scoop a grounder in the seventh inning in Game 5 of the ALDS.<\/p>\n

Tom Szczerbowski \/ Getty Images file photo<\/p>\n

Pillar: \u201cI just remember hearing the roar of the crowd. Getting down the line, kind of looking to my left, and Russ was like, fired up at second base so I knew something had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goins was sent up to bunt the runners over.<\/p>\n

Goins: \u201cIt\u2019s insanely loud, I\u2019ve got Cole Hamels throwing 96 mile per hour sinkers and I\u2019m like \u2018how the f\u2014k am I going to get this ball down?\u2019 Like it\u2019s a chainsaw. His stuff is nasty. I foul the first one off, and I\u2019m like \u2018you have to. You\u2019re getting this bunt down, you cannot miss it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He got the bunt down, right to third baseman Adrian Beltr\u00e9, who made a perfect throw to third base, where Andrus was covering to get pinch-runner Dalton Pompey, but Andrus dropped the ball. The bases were loaded with nobody out.<\/p>\n

Gibbons: \u201cThey had such a great defensive team, but the pressure, the noise in that place\u00a0\u2014 they had three gold glovers on the infield, but they\u2019re booting balls, throwing it away, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banister: \u201cI never felt so bad for a player as I did for Elvis (Andrus). Tremendous human being and what happened, and how the spotlight got shined on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Revere was next, and the Rangers finally made a play. A ground ball to first was thrown home by Moreland to force Pompey at the plate, leaving the bases loaded with one out for Donaldson.<\/p>\n

Bautista: \u201cUltimately, they kind of gave us the game with their three errors back to back to back and then, for whatever reason, they played the infield in on Donaldson and he got a little blooper that could have been an easy out (but) ended up scoring a run. That\u2019s what it takes sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banister, who ordered the infield in to be playing in, has a different recollection.<\/p>\n

Banister: \u201cIt was a little looping line drive that Odor broke in on and had to go back on that would have changed the dynamic of that entire inning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pillar: \u201c(Donaldson) gets absolutely fisted, so I can\u2019t really tag up because it\u2019s almost like an infield fly. So I\u2019m kind of bouncing off trying to read it as he\u2019s starting to like, kind of misplay it. I start to go back towards the base thinking if he does something stupid like dive or (catch it) over his head, maybe I\u2019ve got a chance to tag. Then ultimately the ball drops and as I\u2019m running home, it\u2019s this huge sigh of relief that we tied the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revere was forced at second, so with two out in a 3-3 tie, Bautista came to the plate with runners on the corners.<\/p>\n

Lee: \u201cWe were excited at what could happen. We had the right man there, you know. We were big Jos\u00e9 fans so we had the right man there at the right time, but nobody predicted that. But the mood was shifting to optimism, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

We will let the man himself tell the story.<\/p>\n

Bautista: \u201cGoing into the at-bat, I felt pretty calm given all the hoopla going around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had faced (reliever Sam Dyson) three or four times earlier in the season and I had grounded out to shortstop or third base every single time. The good thing for me is that I knew that he threw sinkers or fastballs 92 or 93 per cent of the time. It had late movement, some moved more than others, it was a very heavy ball. As long as you catch it out front, with good path, you don\u2019t even have to swing that hard. If you (hit it) flush, it\u2019s going to go very far because he\u2019s providing all the power.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe threw a couple that were really good and down, I was able to lay off of them because I was just trying to get a sac fly and get a guy in from third, believe it or not. Then he threw one a little higher, I hit it off of my foot, and for whatever reason I just relaxed a little more, went in and hit the next one in the bleachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A no-doubt three-run homer to put the Jays on top. Rogers Centre hadn\u2019t been so loud since Joe Carter\u2019s home run to win the World Series in 1993, if ever.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Gibbons: \u201cIt\u2019s funny, I didn\u2019t see it happen. I was looking down at some (papers)\u00a0\u2014 you know, \u201cAnalytics Gibbons\u201d \u2014 but I heard the roar. So then I look up and I\u2019m just tracking the ball, so I didn\u2019t actually see the flip. I think the baseball gods were ready, you know? As was Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donaldson: \u201cThat was pretty special, probably the most special part of my career, being a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aar\u00f3n S\u00e1nchez, pitcher: \u201cI knew right away. You can look at all the pictures of the bat flip, you look at the guy behind him and it\u2019s me with both my hands in the air. I went from losing pitcher to winning pitcher, let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"aaron<\/p>\n

Blue Jays pitcher Aaron Sanchez celebrates in the background with his hands in the air after Jose Bautista hits a three-run homer in Game 5 of the ALDS on Oct. 14, 2015.<\/p>\n

Chris Young \/ CP file photo<\/p>\n

Pillar: \u201cEveryone just knew that sound, what it meant, and it was (an)\u00a0immediate, you know, eruption. Then the horn goes off and then it\u2019s like it\u2019s this out-of-body experience where I don\u2019t remember, like, jumping out of the dugout, throwing my hands in the air, headbutting people, it\u2019s just like this, this out-of-body experience that you can\u2019t explain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banister: \u201cIt still hurts that he hit the home run. I think we threw him a change-up and he hit the homer. At that moment, it became the loudest stadium I\u2019ve ever been in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthopoulos: \u00a0\u201cI remember grabbing (assistant GM) Andrew Tinnish, who was sitting in a chair in front of me, trying to grab him around his chest and trying to lift the chair and him all at once and then my arm sliding up and being blocked by his chin, so I lifted him up by his neck because I was going so crazy with excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pull Quote<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone is going to thrive and relish in the post-season, it\u2019s Jos\u00e9. The bigger the moment, the better he\u2019s going to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shulman: \u201cThat home run was the biggest instantaneous release of emotion that I\u2019ve ever seen in a ballpark. It was something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin: \u201cI remember just looking up, kind of just looking towards the sky. The stadium wasn\u2019t open. I knew there was something special that had to happen for the story not to be written another way. Because the other story would be like a Bill Buckner moment. I\u2019d be sad talking about the story. Instead now, I tell the story with a big smile on my face, but the story definitely could have been written differently and I\u2019m so grateful that in that moment, Jos\u00e9 picked up the whole country with one swing and it was incredible. Like, thank you, there\u2019s gotta be something up there. I\u2019m not the most religious person, but there had to be something that had our backs in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the bat flip. Bautista says he doesn\u2019t remember doing it.<\/p>\n

\"bautista-trot.JPG\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all a blur,\u201d Jos\u00e9 Bautista said after he hit his big three-run homer.<\/p>\n

Toronto Star file photo<\/p>\n

Bautista: \u201cI felt the stadium shaking, the fans going nuts and I blacked out for a few minutes. I don\u2019t remember anything after I hit the ball up until some point when I was back on the bench, trying to catch my breath. It was all a blur.\u201d<\/p>\n

He may have blacked out, but no one who has ever seen it will forget the way he fired the bat away with his left hand, brazen. Almost disdainful.<\/p>\n

Anthopoulos: \u201cWhat I loved about the bat flip was his facial expression. I use the word disgusted, but not in a bad way. He launched the homer and he just took the bat with that ferocious look on his face like \u2018get the hell out of here.\u2019 And he discarded it. Like, I\u2019m going to just do my home run trot. It was so perfect and it was so Jos\u00e9 the competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee: \u201cI think that defiant bat flip certainly was the period on the end of a sentence, but I think it came from all of the tension that had built up since that play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game wasn\u2019t over, though it certainly felt like it. And it felt that way to the players, too.<\/p>\n

Pillar: \u201cI knew we had S\u00e1nchez on the mound. I knew we had (closer Roberto) Osuna waiting in the bullpen. It was over when (Bautista) hit it. It was over, it was just a matter of time. Those guys, they weren\u2019t scoring on those two guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goins: \u201cI just remember seeing the ball hit and thinking \u2018oh my God, we just did it.\u2019\u00a0 … you just felt like nobody can f\u2014king beat us. Nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ryan-goins.JPG\"<\/p>\n

Ryan Goins, centre, celebrates Jos\u00e9 Bautista\u2019s\u00a0three-run home run after crossing home plate.<\/p>\n

Toronto Star file photo<\/p>\n

Banister: \u201cWhat happened after that, when we finally got out of the inning, the human side of our game is so great that the first person who met Elvis coming off of the field was Cole Hamels. Cole said \u2018bro, we got you. This is not on you. We got you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t. Texas managed a single and a walk around a ground out off of S\u00e1nchez in the top of the eighth, then Osuna came in and retired all five batters he faced\u00a0\u2014 striking out four\u00a0\u2014 to close it out and send the Blue Jays to the American League championship series against Kansas City.<\/p>\n

Shulman: \u201cIt was an extraordinary game. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been at a sporting event that was as emotionally charged as that was. And I think some of it was that 40-whatever thousand thinking \u2018they\u2019re not going to let us win this game.\u2019 This ballpark was edgier than any other time I\u2019ve ever seen it, even more than \u201993.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

Rangers pitcher Sam Dyson takes issue with Edwin Encarnacion (left) after Jose Bautista (not pictured) homered in the seventh inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steve Russell \/ Toronto Star file photo<\/p>\n

Those final two innings were played, but they didn\u2019t matter. Bautista might as well have walked it off. For all intents and purposes, he did.<\/p>\n

The Dominican native came to the Jays in a 2008 waiver trade with Pittsburgh for catcher Robinzon D\u00edaz, who wound up playing 44 games in the major leagues. Bautista struggled to find his footing in Toronto, but wound up a superstar, hitting a club-record 54 home runs in 2010, the first of six straight all-star seasons, four of which he finished in the top eight in MVP voting. But the team didn\u2019t get great around him until 2015.<\/p>\n

Even with Donaldson winning the MVP that season, it was Bautista who had the biggest moment.<\/p>\n

Gibbons: \u201cHad to be him. Wouldn\u2019t have been the same with somebody else. Even though Josh was the MVP, that was Bautista\u2019s moment. It had to be him. Controversial figure, the face of the franchise through some lean years. It wouldn\u2019t have been the same if somebody else had hit it, I don\u2019t think. Still would have been good, but it wouldn\u2019t have been the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pillar: \u201cI know the right person hit it. There\u2019s never this moment of being envious or wishing that it was me. It was the right guy who hit it. He was put in that place in that moment to have that moment in time. You know, you think about his journey. What he meant to this country, how long he was here before the team was successful, for him to be the one to do it? I mean, you know, (pointing to Bautista\u2019s name on the Level of Excellence) rightfully so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bautista<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Bautista salutes the crowd as his name is unveiled on the \u201cLevel of Excellence\u201d at the Rogers Centre on Aug. 12, 2023.<\/p>\n

Mark Blinch\/Getty Images file photo<\/p>\n

Anthopoulos: \u201cIf someone is going to thrive and relish in the post-season, it\u2019s Jos\u00e9. The bigger the moment, the better he\u2019s going to play. You can put half a billion people in a stadium and that will only make him play better. This guy will rise to the occasion more than any other. Fearless, fearless player. It had to be him, but you know what, you could have predicted it would have been him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banister: \u201cI coached and had Jos\u00e9 Bautista in Pittsburgh as a kid. We were together all the way to the big leagues and together in the big leagues. I have great reverence for Jos\u00e9. Love his career and who he is in the game of baseball and who he has grown up to be, and when I look up and I see his name on (the Level of Excellence), I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bautista: \u201cCredit where credit is due, Joe Carter has the greatest home run in Blue Jays history. I don\u2019t want to act like it\u2019s even a competition, but I\u2019ll gladly take second place if that\u2019s where it ends up. It was an amazing moment and my biggest takeaway is when people talk about it and bring it up to me and it\u2019s always \u2018I was here, I was there.\u2019 To just be able to have that forever, as an organization it\u2019s pretty cool because most of the time you play a very, very long career, you never get a chance to even be in a position, in a moment that big, or to be able create a moment that big.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a big moment. I was lucky enough to even be at the plate with the chance of making something special happen for the whole country and the organization, so I\u2019m glad I did well because it could really have gone the other way quickly, but I\u2019m glad it didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

You and about 40 million other people.<\/p>\n

Watch: Joey Bats and Vladdy: Two bat flips, 10 years apart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m the lucky guy who was standing at the plate, but I\u2019m glad that I came through,\u201d Bautista…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-207717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}