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Throwback Thursday: Remembering Edwin Encarnación’s walk-off home run against the Orioles in the 2016 AL Wild Card game
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro - USA Today
Ryley Delaney
Feb 27, 2025, 08:00 ESTUpdated: Mar 6, 2025, 15:28 EST
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The 2016 season for the Toronto Blue Jays was a fun one.
This is a new weekly series on Blue Jays Nation called Throwback Thursday, where we look at a historical moment, trade, or date in the Blue Jays’ past – usually relating to the team they will play that day. On Feb. 27, the Jays play the Baltimore Orioles and there’s no better historical moment to look at than the 2016 Wild Card game.
Let’s dig in!

The 2016 season

After the highs (and lows) of the run to the 2015 American League Champions Series, the Blue Jays were back at it with the same core, but a different front office as the team hired Mark Shapiro at the end of the 2015 season, as well as general manager Ross Atkins.
Over the decade, fan opinion of the front office has eroded, but the new front office actually made some savvy moves to help the team contend for another season in 2016. Of course, they still had José Bautista, Edwin Encarnación, and Josh Donaldson on their roster, but their off-season additions were useful as well.
On Nov. 27, the Blue Jays signed J.A. Happ, who they had previously traded by the Blue Jays for Michael Saunders the previous off-season. They also selected Joe Biagini from the San Francisco Giants in the Rule 5 draft, before trading Ben Revere to the Washington Nationals for Drew Storen.
That was it for the Blue Jays’ big moves (aside from losing David Price) before the start of the season, but the team had a good trade deadline as well. Their biggest move and arguably the best trade that Shapiro and Atkins made was trading Drew Hutchison to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Francisco Liriano, Reese McGuire, and Harold Ramírez, the latter two were top Pirates prospects. Of course, Liriano was flipped the next season for Teoscar Hernández.
Additionally, the Blue Jays traded to improve their bullpen, picking up Jason Grilli in late May as well as Joaquín Benoit in late July after DFA’ing Storen. Unfortunately, Benoit didn’t pitch in the postseason as he tore his left calf running out of the bullpen in a bench-clearing brawl in late September. Notably, that wasn’t their only bench-clearing brawl that season.
With an 89-73 record, the Blue Jays fell four games back of the Boston Red Sox, missing out on back-to-back first-placed American League East finishes and setting up a winner-take-all Wild Card game. The two teams finished with the same record, but the Blue Jays won the season series 10-9.

The Wild Card game

The first three half innings were scoreless, but Bautista opened the scoring with a solo home run in the bottom of the second on a 3-1 count with no outs. Obviously, it’s not as ironic his home run that came 355 days before, but it was still important.
Unfortunately, that lead didn’t hold for long, as Mark Trumbo hit a two-run home run on a line to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead. The Blue Jays answered back in the bottom of the fifth, with Ezequiel Carrera hitting a single to score Saunders to tie the game. This was the last time either team scored until the bottom of the 11th.
Where were you on Oct. 4, 2016? I can tell you exactly where I was: I was working at Subway and training for my first closing shift – which was my last because this game was on my phone and I was too busy staring at it. As I got home, it happened. You know what it is.
Devon Travis and Donaldson hit back-to-back singles, putting two runners on with one out. On the first pitch from Ubaldo Jiménez (notably not Zack Britton), Edwin Encarnación hit a drive to deep left field and the ball game was over.
What a special moment.

The fallout

The year before, the Blue Jays eliminated the Texas Rangers in the American League Divisional series thanks to a handful of errors and a blast from José Bautista. That caused some tension in the regular season against the two teams, culminating in Rougned Odor punching the Blue Jays legend in the face, the most notable moment in Rangers history until the World Series win in 2023.
With a 95-67 record, the Rangers finished first in the American League, setting up a rematch in the 2016 American League Divisional Series. As the saying goes, you’d rather get punched in May than knocked out in October, as the Blue Jays swept the Rangers with the famous Donaldson Dash. In the future, a Throwback Thursday will be dedicated to the rivalry between the two teams, so look out for that in August of this season.
Anyway, the Blue Jays fell to 3-0 in the American League Championship Series against the team from Cleveland, managed to win Game 4, but fell in five. This ended the contention window and the team entered a three-season rebuild, not realizing they needed to rebuild until the 2019 season.
The Blue Jays still haven’t won a postseason game since Oct. 18, 2016, but in fairness, the Orioles still haven’t won a postseason game since 2014. Hopefully, the Blue Jays can repeat the magic from a decade ago this season.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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