Last night serves as a reminder not to check out

I’ll be honest, I haven’t paid much attention to the Blue Jays over the past month and a bit. You’d probably have noticed that if you follow this website closely or if you follow along on Twitter, there isn’t the same amount of detail attached to the day-to-day happenings of the team. Last night, the team made me regret tuning out.

But if you’re like me and you decided not to watch this rebuilding team full of enthusiastic rookies looking to prove themselves during their September cup of coffee, you’d have missed easily the most incredible moment of baseball in 2018. The Toronto Blue Jays— No, the Toronto Bisons scored seven runs in the ninth inning to walk-off the Tampa Bay Rays.

Down 8-2, Dwight Smith Jr. led off the ninth inning with a double. Smith isn’t a highly touted prospect by any stretch, but he’s continually showed an ability to handle the bat at every Major League opportunity he’s been given.

Rowdy Tellez continued his magical September with another double to drive in Smith. 8-3 Rays.

After that, Jonathan Davis, a prospect I don’t think anybody figured would ever reach the Major Leagues given the fact he spent most of his time in the system being mistaken for 2013-first-round pick D.J. Davis, worked a 10-pitch at bat, reaching base after being hit by a pitch.

Reese McGuire struck out, but Danny Jansen hammered a ball over the left field wall. These two are actually a hell of a young catching duo. 8-6 Blue Jays.

Richard Urena struck out, sending Kendrys Morales to the plate with two outs. He singled to keep the the rally alive. Next up was Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Gurriel has been one of Toronto’s most impressive rookies this year and he credits countryman Morales to his success. It’s fitting, then, that Morales got on base to give Gurriel the chance to shine. He smacked a ball over the left field wall just shy of the foul pole. 8-8 Blue Jays.

Just moments later, Justin Smoak, who’s suddenly become one of this team’s veteran leaders, ended things by sending a Sergio Romo offering into the Rays bullpen in right field. 9-8 Jays…somehow.

Just when you thought you couldn’t get enough of the baby Blue Jays overload, David Paulino – one of the prospects that came back with Ken Giles in the Roberto Osuna trade – picked up his first victory of the year with a clean 9th before the madness. Again, pitcher wins are meaningless, but that must have felt good for the 24-year-old.

Look at Tellez, Jansen, and Gurriel. They’ve never experienced anything like this in their careers before. Look at Russell Martin, a guy who’s been in the middle of every big moment the team had in 2015 and 2016 now relegated to a bench role. He’s running out there like the team just won the World Series.

The, like, 5,000 people who stuck around were treated to an absolutely magical inning in which the Large Adult Sons created a glimpse of what the future could look like in Toronto. They also reminded the many of us who had checked out, including myself, why they’re a group worth watching. No matter how difficult it is to watch a young team trudge through a rebuild while the ashes of the beloved 2015 team lay around the league, baseball’s most incredible moments come at the most impossibly random times.

A late-September game against the Tampa Bay Rays gifted those who were willing to be patient easily the best few minutes of the season.

Does it mean anything in the grand scheme of things? Not really, no. The team is still waaaaay out of playoff contention and a lot of the guys involved might not even be here when the team is competitive. But still, watching these kids pull a win out of nowhere like that, treating each at bat like it could be their last in the bigs, is something special. It might not be the thrill of competitive baseball we got a taste of those two wild years, but there’s still something here to enjoy.