BALTIMORE -- Champagne and beer were spraying everywhere. Cigars were lit, and laughter filled the clubhouse.
It had been 22 years since the Toronto Blue Jays won the American League East, and they celebrated the occasion with the appropriate fanfare.
Wearing shirts that read "The East Is Ours," the Blue Jays yelled and screamed with delight in an appropriate conclusion to their unstoppable, two-month run.
With a 15-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday in the opener of a doubleheader, Toronto eliminated the New York Yankees from the division race and claimed its first title since 1993. The suspense ended quickly as the Blue Jays built a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning before adding four unearned runs in the fifth.
"It's the ultimate right now," Manager John Gibbons said. "To be honest, we think we have more ahead of us. It was a big hurdle to get over. It's been so damn long. But I am proud of our guys from Day One. They just compete. That all we ask.
"That's what happens when you have a lot of talent and they get after it every night."
The Blue Jays waited so long for this, there were two celebrations. After the first game, players whooped and hollered and hugged around the mound. Because there was a another game to be played, the alcohol and cigars were put off until after the nightcap, which the Orioles won 8-1 against Toronto's reserves.
Marcus Stroman (4-0) allowed 1 run and 5 hits with 8 strikeouts in the opener in his fourth start since returning from left knee surgery.
Jose Bautista hit his 40th home run, Edwin Encarnacion delivered his 37th and Justin Smoak also connected for Toronto. Ryan Goins had a career-high five hits to help the Blue Jays win their sixth consecutive.
Toronto was fourth in the AL East on the morning of July 29 with a 50-51 record, eight games behind the Yankees. But boosted by the acquisitions of David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, Ben Revere, LaTroy Hawkins and Mark Lowe, the Blue Jays won 42 of their next 56 games, outscoring opponents 342-200.
They ended the major leagues' longest playoff drought Sept. 26 when they clinched no worse than a wild-card berth.
"We played good baseball," Price said. "I've done my part, and so has everybody else on this team. It's not one person, it's not one trade. It's everybody with one goal in sight."
General Manager Alex Anthopoulos insists that in late July the goal was merely to reach the playoffs.
"We felt we had a real good team that underachieved to this point," he said. "Our last two months, we were playing really good teams that we were going to chase, so we thought we had a shot."
Stroman's exceptional pitching this month added to the surge. The right-hander has a 1.67 ERA and has beaten the Yankees twice.
The Blue Jays open the division series Oct. 8 at home. They are just ahead of Kansas City for the best record in the AL.
"We're dangerous offensively. We're dangerous on the mound," catcher Russell Martin said. "We play awesome defense. So, I mean, if somebody's going to beat us, they're going to have to play tremendously."
A year ago, Baltimore celebrated its first AL East title since 1997. The Orioles watched their successors end an even longer wait Wednesday.
"Congratulations to them, they earned it," Baltimore Manager Buck Showalter said. "We had something that people came after, and they took it from us."
This was Baltimore's first game since being officially eliminated from playoff contention, and it showed. Seven pitchers combined to issue 10 walks and the Orioles committed four errors despite coming in with the best fielding percentage in the majors.
"In any form of life, when you take hope out of the picture it really challenges you mentally and emotionally," Showalter said. "We didn't respond to that in the first game."
After Miguel Gonzalez (9-12) walked 3 and gave up 4 runs in 3 2/3 innings, errant throws by pitcher Jason Garcia and Davis on the same play fueled a fifth-inning uprising that turned the game into a rout.
The loss ended any hope the Orioles had of salvaging a winning season.
In the second game, Chris Davis hit two home runs to take over the major-league run lead with 45. Manny Machado hit his 31st off Ryan Tepera (0-2) to break up a scoreless duel in the seventh.
Kevin Gausman (4-7) had a career-high 10 strikeouts over eight innings. Toronto starter R.A. Dickey pitched five innings in his final tuneup before the postseason.
RED SOX 9, YANKEES 5 (11) New York’s normally steady bullpen wasted a chance to clinch its first playoff berth in three years when Dellin Betances gave up a tying homer and Andrew Bailey allowed the go-ahead hit in visiting Boston’s 11-inning victory.
ATHLETICS 8, ANGELS 7 Stephen Vogt hit a tiebreaking, two-run single during Oakland’s four-run seventh inning rally, and the Athletics hung on to stop host Los Angeles’ seven-game winning streak.
RANGERS 6, TIGERS 2 Adrian Beltre hit the first of three Texas home runs as the AL West-leading Rangers moved closer to a postseason berth with a victory over visiting Detroit. Robinson Chirinos and Mike Napoli also hit home runs for the Rangers, who open a four-game series at home today against the Angels.
ROYALS 5, WHITE SOX 3 (10) Eric Hosmer hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning, and Kansas City beat host Chicago to clinch home-field advantage in an AL Division Series. Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas also homered for Kansas City, which had already clinched the AL Central title.
TWINS 7-2, INDIANS 1-10 Cody Anderson pitched seven shutout innings and Jose Ramirez hit a three-run home run, leading host Cleveland to a victory over Minnesota to split a doubleheader and stay alive in the AL wild-card race. Minnesota won the first game and pulled to one game behind the Angels for the second wild-card spot.
INTERLEAGUE
RAYS 6, MARLINS 4 Drew Smyly (Little Rock Central, Arkansas Razorbacks) won his fifth consecutive decision, Grady Sizemore had a three-run double and host Tampa Bay beat Miami. Smyly (5-2) allowed 1 run on 3 hits, gave up 3 walks and had 8 strikeouts over 6 innings.
Sports on 10/01/2015