There's nothing like October baseball. Allow me to set the scene for you—it is Game 5 of the American League Division Series, a battle between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers. The winner goes to the American League Championship and fights for a spot in the World Series. The loser packs their bags, heads home, and begins preparations for 2016. After six tightly contested innings, the score stands at 2-2 going into the seventh inning at the Rodgers Center in Toronto, Canada. Everybody knows this inning has the potential to be one to remember—not a soul has any idea it will be one that will be impossible to forget.
The Jays' starting pitcher, Marcus Stroman, has reached his limit on pitches in the previous inning, so Toronto calls on rookie pitcher Aaron Sanchez to toe the rubber. The fourth pitch of the inning is shot to left field by Rougned Odor. Runner on first, no outs. Following a sacrifice bunt and a weak ground out, the Rangers sit with two outs and a runner on third base. This is where things begin to get interesting. Sanchez throws a high ball to Rangers batter Shin-Soo Choo on the first pitch of the at-bat, and Toronto catcher Russell Martin goes to throw the ball back. However, almost simultaneously, Choo sticks his arm out to adjust his jersey. Martin's throw bounces off Choo's hand, flies towards third base, and Odor crosses home before anyone realizes what even happened. The umpire, as surprised as anyone, calls time. After initially calling the play dead, he overturns the ruling and calls the runner safe. 3-2, Rangers. The entire crowd of almost 50,000 erupts with rage.
Instead of simply booing like most sports fans would, the Jays fans feel like they need to make an even bigger statement. The entire lower deck takes whatever they are drinking, full or not, and throws the can on the field. The grounds crew is taken completely off guard and has no idea what to do. Team officials are running frantically around the field, trying to help the grounds crew clean up, as well as attempting to at least calm down the now hostile crowd. Eventually, after 10 minutes or so of pure chaos, the fans either calm down or run out of things to throw, and play is able to resume. Sanchez, behind the now electric Toronto crowd, proceeds to strike out swinging. On to the bottom of the inning.
The Rangers, rather than follow suit with the Blue Jays, decide to keep their starting pitcher, Cole Hamels, in for the seventh inning. He gets right to work, attacking the zone heavily against Jays catcher Martin. The fourth pitch of the at-bat is a fastball that Martin hits very routinely to Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus. However, Andrus can't field the ball cleanly and Martin reaches first base safely. The next batter, Kevin Pillar, hits another routine ground ball, but this time to first baseman Mitch Moreland. Moreland fields the ball cleanly, but chooses to throw the ball to Andrus' feet, rather than his glove. Both Martin and Pillar are safe at their respective bases, with still nobody out. Ryan Goins, Toronto second baseman, is now up to bat. He attempts a sacrifice bunt, a play where the batter is trying to get out, and bunts it straight to Adrian Beltre playing third. He fields it cleanly, has a good throw to Andrus covering third, and Andrus just flat out drops it. Three straight errors, bases loaded.
Ben Revere is next up for the Jays, and promptly grounds a ball to Moreland at first base. For the first time all inning, the Rangers decide to play error-free baseball, and Moreland throws the ball to the plate and guns down the runner trying to score. The runner, to make sure a double play is not made, slides into Rangers catcher Chris Gimenez' legs and takes him out hard. The Rangers, for good reason, don't take kindly to this. Manager Jeff Banister challenges that the runner at first should be called out as well, but the umpires disagree. The Rangers settle for just one out.
Hamels had reached 111 pitches with that last batter, so the Rangers turn to relief pitcher Sam Dyson. The hard throwing right hander challenges MVP candidate Josh Donaldson with three fastballs, and Donaldson pops the third one up to second base. Odor, playing second base, can't make a play on it, but right fielder Shin-Soo Choo scoops the ball up and makes the force out at second base. The game is tied 3-3, but the Jays now have 2 outs.
Power hitter Jose Bautista steps up to the plate. It's do or die time for the Jays. Bautista fouls a pitch off, then takes a ball. The count is 1-1. The next pitch would be the biggest mistake of Dyson's career. The pitch, an inside fastball, connects as solid with Bautista's bat as physically possible. The moonshot, a three-run dinger to left field, gives the Jays a demanding 6-3 lead. Bautista stands in the box and just admires his conquer, then proceeds to put an exclamation point on the hit by performing the most legendary bat flip of his career. An iconic moment in Blue Jay history had just been unveiled before the world's eyes.
Naturally, the Rangers aren't too fond of Bautista's showboating. Words are exchanged, then both benches clear as a shoving match takes place at home plate. The fans love it, and apparently got more beer cans during the seventh inning stretch, because they start throwing cans on the field again. Chaos once again ensues in the Rogers Center. This time, team officials opt to call the police rather than handle it themselves, and fans begin getting arrested left and right. Meanwhile, on the field, Jays pitcher Mark Buehrle is ejected, ending the scuffle.
With the bases cleared, the game starts up again. Edwin Encarnacion and Chris Colabello string together back to back singles, but the inning ends after Troy Tulowitzki pops up to the catcher. Dyson then pats Tulowitzki on the back, but Tulowitzki isn't in the mood for congratulatory contact. He turns around, pushes Dyson in the chest, and the benches clear once more, just for good measure. Thankfully for both teams, ejections were not handed out this time. At last, after an hour of insanity, the seventh inning concludes.
The score would remain 6-3 for the remaining duration of the game, as the Toronto Blue Jays earn their right to fight to an American League title. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers are left hanging their heads in despair, all because of one inning. Game 5 of the American League Division Series captured the MLB Playoffs' full potential. There's nothing like October baseball.
