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Throwback Thursday: Looking at the Blue Jays’ walk off victory against Athletics in September 2021
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Jul 10, 2025, 18:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 10, 2025, 20:54 EDT
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Before the All-Star Game, the Toronto Blue Jays play a three-game series against the Athletics in Sacramento.
Although the 2025 season is different to the 2015 season, a similar feeling is in the air this year that was felt a decade ago. It feels as if this team is special and can go on a legitimate run.
That feeling, to a lesser extent due to the pandemic, was also felt during the 2021 season. Of any season in the Vladimir Guerrero Jr./Bo Bichette era, the 2021 season felt like the best chance to win the World Series until 2025. Which is quite funny, considering they didn’t even make the postseason that season.
As special as that team felt, their chances of making that postseason didn’t feel great. Entering the September 3rd game, the Blue Jays sat five games back of the final Wild Card spot.
In this edition of Throwback Thursday, we’ll look at the September 3rd game in 2021, an important game for what was to come in the rest of the 2021 season. If you missed last week’s edition, we looked at the Roger Clemens trade to the New York Yankees. We’ve also looked at the two trades that brought Matt Chapman and Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays in a recent Throwback Thursday.

A background

Coming into the series opener against the Oakland Athletics on September 3, 2021, the Blue Jays were 6-4 in their 10 games and sat five games behind the final Wild Card spot. Over their previous five games, the Jays started to turn it around, going from a 66-61 record to a 70-62 record entering this game.
The Blue Jays were playing catch-up throughout the season, as their pitching staff was not good entering the season, as their rotation featured Hyun Jin Ryu, T.J. Zeuch, Steven Matz, Tanner Roark, and Ross Stripling. Their bullpen wasn’t any better to start the season, as they had Tyler Chatwood, Ryan Borucki, Trent Thornton, and Rafael Dolis in it.
They added pitching during the season, acquiring both Adam Cimber and Trevor Richards for the bullpen and José Berríos at the trade deadline for the rotation. They also promoted Alek Manoah early in the season and activated Robbie Ray from the Injured List, who won the American League Cy Young Award.
Their pitching wasn’t good, but the same couldn’t be said about their bats. One buy-low player the Jays signed in the off-season was Marcus Semien, who slashed .285/.369/.522 with 33 home runs in 2019, but had a sub-100 wRC+ in his seven other big league seasons. They also had Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Teoscar Hernández, George Springer, and others.
One of the teams the Blue Jays were chasing in the Wild Card race was the Athletics, who were 74-60 entering September 3rd’s game, just two games back of a Wild Card spot.

The game

The Jays opened a three-game home series against the Athletics entering the weekend. It didn’t start well, as future Blue Jay Matt Chapman hit a two-run double in the top of the first to give the Athletics a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, Hernández hit a two-run home run, his 23rd of the season, to tie the game.
After that, it was all Athletics for the next three innings. They scored two runs in each of the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings, before the Blue Jays finally forced them to put up a 0 in the top of the eighth. Down 8-2, the Jays needed a big inning in the bottom of the eighth.
Leading off the inning was Breyvic Valera, who drew an eight-pitch walk to give the Jays a lead-off runner. Unfortunately, Springer struck out looking, followed by Semien’s soft ground out, which moved the runner, but gave the Jays their second out.
They finally strung some hits together after Semien, as Guerrero Jr. hit a single to cash in Valera. Bichette was hit by a pitch, and Hernández walked, loading the bases. A new pitcher walked Alejandro Kirk to drive in the Jays’ fourth run. Up next was Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who hit a slam to tie it up at eight. Corey Dickerson struck out to end the inning.
Quick sidenote, this was Gurriel Jr.’s third grand slam of the season. Nine days later, he hit his franchise-tying fourth grand slam of the season against the Baltimore Orioles.
The vibes were high, but they was short-lived. Matt Olson led off the top of the ninth with a single, before Jed Lowrie and Chapman struck out. Mark Canha hit a two-run home run, restoring the Athletics’ lead, the third time in the game the Jays fell behind.
Heading into the bottom of the ninth, Valera led off the inning once again, hitting a single to get the rally started. Springer hit a double, putting two runners in scoring position with no outs and down two runs. 
Up stepped Semien. He quickly went down 1-2 in the count, took another ball and fouled off another pitch. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Sergio Romo threw a middle-middle sinker, and Semien crushed it.
This walk-off home run gave the Blue Jays their third consecutive win, giving them a 71-62 record.

What happened afterward

So what happened after that? This was the third consecutive win, but the Jays won five more to bring their win streak to eight, before losing 6-3 to the Orioles. They then proceeded to win four more, giving them a 15-2 record in their last 17 games.
Overall, the Blue Jays finished with a 19-9 record in September, with an additional three wins in October to bring them a 91-71 record. Unfortunately, both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees both won the final game of the season, as the Jays were unable to force a game 163.
Just one year later, the league introduced a third Wild Card spot, which would’ve included the Blue Jays if it were around for the 2021 season. Sad, because the 2021 team was a good one. Semien departed for the Texas Rangers, winning the World Series with them in 2023.
As for the Athletics, this was the beginning of the end for that core’s chances at a World Series ring. At the end of the season, they finished 86-76, six games behind for the final Wild Card spot. In the off-season, Matt Olson was traded to the Atlanta Braves and Matt Chapman was traded to the Blue Jays.
They proceeded to finish 60-102 in 2022 and have continued to struggle to this day.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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