The Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles at Rogers Center in the American League Wild Card, 5-2. The Blue Jays will advance to the American League Division Series.
Home runs were the name of the game on Tuesday, but that was expected. The Orioles and Blue Jays combined for 474 home runs during the regular season, the second-most between two playoff teams.
In the bottom of the second inning, Jose Bautista gave the Blue Jays the first lead of the postseason with a solo home run. The home run gave Toronto a 1-0 edge and was launched at 101 miles per hour and went for a 357-foot ride over the fence at Rogers Centre.
Bautista's shot gave him an RBI in his last five postseason games, the longest streak in Blue Jays history. It was also his fifth postseason homerun with Toronto, and only Joe Carter (six) has more on his resume.
MLB home run king does it again
Mark Trumbo led the MLB in home runs during the regular season with 47. So it makes sense that he would hit a two-run homer in his second career postseason at-bat to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning.
The slugger was the first Baltimore player to hit a home run in his postseason debut since Geronimo Berrora in 1997.
Marcus Stroman (9-10, 4.37 ERA) toed the slab for the Blue Jays. He went 6.0 innings, allowing two runs on four hits. The right-hander did not allow a walk and struck out six batters.
Toronto got a run back in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game, 2-2. Ezequiel Carrera singled on a line drive to center field, allowing Michael Saunders to trot home.
Chris Tillman (16-6, 3.77 ERA) got the Wild Card start for the Orioles and finished with 4.1 innings under his belt. He allowed two runs on four hits and a walk, earning four strikeouts.
Extra innings
The last time a Wild Card game went into extra innings was the 2014 battle between the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals, which went 12 innings. Believe it or not, the Royals went to the World Series, but fell to the San Francisco Giants. After nine innings of baseball, the Blue Jays and Orioles headed to extra innings to decide the victor.
Baltimore came into the extra innings showdown with a 7-8 all-time record in extra-inning playoff games, while the Blue Jays owned a 3-2 record. Buck Showalter had a extra-inning postseason win under his belt, but John Gibbons was still searching for his first.
After back-to-back singles by Devon Travis and Josh Donaldson in the bottom of the 11th inning, Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion stepped to the dish. The first baseman from the Dominican Republic sent a monster home run to the left field seats to give Toronto a 5-2 walk-off win in the American League Wild Card.
Up next
The Blue Jays will take on the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series on Thursday at 4:30 PM ET. Game 1 of the series will be played at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas.