TORONTO — Josh Donaldson’s mad dash moved the Blue Jays into the next round of the playoffs.
Donaldson raced home from second base after Rougned Odor bounced a double-play relay in the 10th inning and Toronto beat the Texas Rangers 7-6 on Sunday night to sweep their American League division series.
Donaldson, the reigning AL MVP, led off the 10th with a double into the right-center field gap and Matt Bush intentionally walked Edwin Encarnacion.
After Jose Bautista struck out, Russell Martin hit a grounder to shortstop Elvis Andrus, who tried to start a double play with a feed to second base. After making the turn, second baseman Odor short-hopped his throw to Mitch Moreland and the ball skipped a few feet away, allowing Donaldson to sprint home and beat the first baseman’s throw with a dive across the plate.
BLUE JAYS 7, RANGERS 6 (10)
“I was at third base when the throw was being made,” Donaldson said. “Once I saw [Moreland] miss the pick, I felt like I had to take a chance right there.”
The wild-card Blue Jays are headed back to the AL Championship Series after beating Texas in an ALDS for a second consecutive year and will face the winner of the Cleveland-Boston series. The Indians lead 2-0, with Game 3 scheduled for today following a postponement Sunday.
Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro, who spent 24 years with Cleveland before joining Toronto last fall, said he’d already reached out to one former Indians colleague about a potential ALCS meeting.
“It’s something I’ve tried not to think about,” Shapiro said, “but I texted [Indians GM] Chris Antonetti a twoword text about 10 minutes ago: Your turn.”
Toronto’s bench emptied and swarmed around Donaldson near home plate after his dramatic dash, while Bush kneeled in the infield and watched the celebration. The umpires huddled to review the play at second base in case of interference, but after a brief delay, the crowd of 49,555 went wild as crew chief Joe West signaled the run counted.
“You’re like ‘Oh gosh, let’s not have a technicality ruin this moment for us right here,’” Martin said. “It was a little bit of a buzzkill at the time.”
Donaldson had two doubles among his three hits and is batting .538 through four postseason games, all victories for the Blue Jays, who had to beat Baltimore in a wildcard game to get to the ALDS.
The Blue Jays now get four days off before the ALCS begins Friday, and they’re happy to get it.
“Some people like to say a couple of days off might throw our timing off,” Martin said. “I really don’t believe in that. At this point in the year, a couple of days off can do wonders.”
Bautista’s home run and emphatic bat flip in Game 5 was the lasting image from Toronto’s ALDS victory over the Rangers last season. On May 15, Odor famously punched Bautista to spark a brawl in Texas, and the broadcast of Sunday’s game showed a fan-made sign declaring “I would rather get punched in May than get knocked out in October.”
Bush had thrown two scoreless innings in relief prior to beginning the 10th.