The Canadian Press
Neil Davidson
TORONTO—The Blue Jays’ celebrations continued on the field yesterday as Josh Donaldson’s walk-off solo homer served up a wild ending to Toronto’s regular-season home finale before another Rogers Centre sell-out.
The ninth-inning blast to left field gave Toronto a 5-4 comeback win over the Tampa Bay Rays—the latest exclamation point in a season to remember for both Donaldson and the Jays.
“He’s got that flair for the dramatic,” said Toronto manager John Gibbons, whose team leads the majors with 221 homers.
“He really does. He’s done that so many times this year,” Gibbons added.
“Really it was a perfect ending for our home season this year, it really was.”
Of Donaldson’s 41 home runs this season, 27 either have tied the game or given Toronto the lead.
He has three walk-off homers for the year—a franchise record—and has seven over the last three seasons.
No other player has more than three.
“Ever since I was young, I’ve always look forward to the big moments in the game,” said Donaldson.
“And I want to be able to come through.
“If it wasn’t for my teammates today, I’m not even put in that position,” he added graciously.
“I think they did a great job of battling the entire time.”
Toronto out-hit Tampa 10-6 in winning its fourth-straight game.
The Jays close out the season on the road, with four games in Baltimore and then three in Tampa.
With a wild-card berth already assured, the goal is to win the AL East and secure home-field advantage.
Toronto’s magic number is four.
The Yankees beat the White Sox 6-1 yesterday to remain four games behind the Jays in the AL East.
The Jays also are tied with Kansas City for the best record in the AL at 90-85.
Amazingly, the Jays were 51-51 back on July 29 while the Royals were 61-39.
Yesterday’s dramatic win followed the Jays’ short but intense post-game celebrations on Saturday to mark ending the club’s 22-year playoff drought.
“It got a little out of hand for the situation after we had a talk before the game [Saturday] about just a toast and that was it,” acknowledged Toronto starter Mark Buehrle, who stepped away from the festivities.
The champagne and cigars were put away yesterday, but Donaldson still needed a towel before the day was done.
After sending an 0-1 delivery from Steve Geltz (2-6) towards the left-field seats, Donaldson stopped, dropped the bat, and then worked his way around the bases in front of a delirious crowd of 47,287.
Mayhem awaited him.
Donaldson was doused by Gatorade as he disappeared into a scrum of teammates upon crossing the plate, to chants of M-V-P.
The third baseman then was doused with popcorn and assorted other liquids during his post-game TV interview.
Justin Smoak, who had driven in three runs already, started the Jays’ rally with a one-out single in the eighth.
Pinch-runner Dalton Pompey stole second before Kevin Pillar doubled him home to tie the game at 4-4.
Ben Revere kept it even in the ninth with a diving catch that saw four Jays converge on a Steven Sousa Jr. fly ball.
Donaldson also kept the Jays close in the eighth with a heady play—removing a man at third with no outs.
He tagged out Mikie Mahtook at third as the Rays’ outfielder struggled to get back on a sharply hit grounder.
“That was huge, too,” said Gibbons.
The 53 home wins match Toronto’s 1992 total and is second only to 1985 (54).
Toronto has been a juggernaut the last two months, going 41-15 since July 26 when it was 50-50.
The sell-out crowd of 47,287—the 12th-straight and 27th of 2015—upped the season home total to 2,794,891, the club’s highest since 1995 (2,826,483).
Elsewhere in the AL, Minnesota dumped Detroit 7-1, Boston beat Baltimore 2-0, Kansas City blanked Cleveland 3-0, Houston doubled Texas 4-2, and L.A. edged Seattle 3-2.
