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Throwback Thursday: Looking at the Blue Jays’ final series of the 2016 season against the Red Sox
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Photo credit: © Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Apr 10, 2025, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 10, 2025, 20:03 EDT
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The 2015 and 2016 Toronto Blue Jays were special.
Given how the last eight seasons have gone, the 2015 and 2016 seasons stand out as a brief respite from the mediocrity the Blue Jays have been since their back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993.
The 2015 season in particular was the year, as the Jays won the American League East, overcame a 2-0 deficit in the American League Divisional Series thanks to José Bautista’s home run, but fell in six games to the Kansas City Royals. Dalton Pompey was on third base with no outs!
Alex Anthopoulos left the Blue Jays after that, but his core didn’t as Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins took over. The 2016 season was their last go at things, and the new management made some savvy moves. They brought back J.A. Happ before the season started, acquired two important relievers in Jason Grilli and Joaquín Benoit during the season, and fleeced the Pittsburgh Pirates before the trade deadline.
Fast forward to September 30, 2016, and they were hanging on to a playoff spot by a thread. After a 4-0 loss to the Baltimore Orioles the night before, the Jays occupied the second wild card with an even number of games played with the Orioles and a 1.5 game lead over the Detroit Tigers.
Their last series of the season was against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. In this edition of Throwback Thursday, we’ll look at the final series of the 2016 season.

Game 1

Things went from bad to worse for the Blue Jays after September 30th’s slate of games.
In the bottom of the first, David Ortiz hit an RBI single to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. The score held that way until the top of the fifth, as Josh Donaldson hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Two batters later, José Bautista hit a two-run home run to give the Jays a 3-1 lead.
Then, the bad happened. In the bottom of the seventh, Andrew Benintendi hit a lead-off double, which was followed by Dustin Pedroia hitting a single that included a throwing error by Russell Martin. Reliever Joe Biagini threw a wild pitch, and the Red Sox had a runner at third with no outs.
The Jays got their first out, but Mookie Betts hit an RBI single to tie the game at three. The Jays replaced Biagini with Brett Cecil and on the fourth pitch to Ortiz, the Hall of Famer hit a two-run home run, leading to a 5-3 win for the Red Sox.
Not just that, but the out-of-town scoreboard was no help to the Jays. The Orioles had a massive inning in an 8-1 victory to move them to a full game ahead of the Jays. Moreover, the Tigers won their game 6-2 to move just a half game back of the Jays for the final wild card spot.
The last two games of the series were now must-win.

Game 2

Game 2 started similarly to the day before, as the Red Sox jumped out to a lead in the bottom of the first, as Chris Young hit a two-out, two-RBI single with the bases loaded to give them a 2-0 lead. However, Kevin Pillar hit a two-RBI single of his own in the top of the second to tie the game up at two.
The game stood this way until the top of the sixth, as Pillar hit another single with two runners on, driving in Russell Martin to give the Jays a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the eighth, the Red Sox tied the game thanks to a balk by Roberto Osuna.
In the top of the ninth, Michael Saunders led off the inning with a walk and was replaced by Dalton Pompey. Pillar moved the runner to second base with a sacrifice bunt (remember he already had three RBIs in the game). A wild pitch brought Saunders to third base, and Ezequiel Carrera drove him in with a sacrifice fly to give the Jays a lead.
Osuna generated a fly out and two ground balls in the bottom of the ninth, as the Jays won their penultimate game 4-3.
This time, the out-of-town scoreboard went in their favour. The Orioles blew a 3-0 lead, as the New York Yankees had a big bottom of the eighth to take a 7-3 lead. In Atlanta, the Braves defeated the Tigers 5-3. With the loss, the Tigers were eliminated from the postseason, but the Jays still had home-field advantage to play for.

Game 3

The situation was simple for the final game of the season. If the Jays won, they would host the Orioles in the Wild Card Game. I remember this game well, as former Blue Jay David Price was warming up, the stadium was playing Baba O’Riley by The Who. It hyped me up.
In the fifth inning, the Jays got on the board, as second baseman Devon Travis hit his 11th home run of the season to take the 1-0 lead. Hanley Ramírez responded for the Red Sox in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Clutch hitting was the personification of the 2015 and 2016 Jays, and they got a clutch hit from Troy Tulowitzki in the top of the eighth, as he hit an RBI single for the 2-1 lead. It took three relievers to close out the game, but Osuna retired the final three outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the Blue Jays were heading back home to face the Orioles in a winner-take-all.

What happened next

Thanks to winning the season series, the Jays hosted the Orioles in Toronto. I’ve written in another Throwback Thursday about how that went. Next up, they swept the Texas Rangers in the ALDS before falling to Cleveland in the ALCS.
The core stuck around for one more season, but failed to make the postseason in 2017. Still, the 2015 and 2016 seasons will always be highly regarded amongst Blue Jays fans of my generation.
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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