Blue Jays secure home field advantage for wild-card series

On Oct. 3, 2021, the Toronto Blue Jays spanked the Baltimore Orioles 12-4 to give themselves a shot to secure the final American League playoff spot.

Unfortunately, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox both won as well, which meant Toronto fell one game short of making the post-season.

Exactly one year later, on Monday, the Blue Jays beat the Orioles again, and got some help in the form of a Detroit Tigers win over the Seattle Mariners, to clinch home field advantage in the wild-card series.

Gonna be HOT up in the Six 🔥

See you Friday, Toronto 💙 #NextLevel pic.twitter.com/vDHrmPyGjZ

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) October 4, 2022

That means the best-of-three series, which will be played from Friday through Sunday, will be played entirely at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

It’s one of the most electric buildings in the league for playoff baseball, as evidenced by the thunderous crowds during the Blue Jays runs in 2015 and 2016.

All that is left to be decided now is who will be coming to Toronto for the three-game series, as it could be the Mariners or the Tampa Bay Rays.

Seattle, who has three games left, needs a combination of two wins or Tampa Bay losses to secure the second wild-card spot and a date with the Blue Jays over the weekend.

🇨🇦 On this day in 2016…

This atmosphere returns Friday 💙 pic.twitter.com/BZy1MrxhoI

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) October 4, 2022

A series between the Blue Jays and Mariners would be an interesting one for British Columbian baseball fans, as the majority have an allegiance to one of those two teams.

Clinching home field advantage also allows Toronto to set up their pitching rotation exactly how they want for the weekend series.

That will likely mean Alek Manoah on the mound for game one on Friday and Kevin Gausman taking the hill for game two on Saturday, assuming the cut on his pitching hand has healed.

If the series goes to a winner-takes-all game three on Sunday, manager John Schneider will have to make a decision between José Berrios and Ross Stripling for that game.

_{Thumbnail photo courtesy of the Toronto Blue Jays.}