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| Date | October 4, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Rogers Centre | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Toronto,Ontario | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Managers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Umpires | Ted Barrett,Gary Cederstrom (crew chief),Eric Cooper,Will Little,David Rackley andBill Welke Replay:Scott Barry andMark Carlson.[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 49,934 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ceremonial first pitch | Roberto Alomar[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Television | Canada:Sportsnet United States:TBS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Ernie Johnson Jr.,Ron Darling,Cal Ripken Jr., andSam Ryan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio | Canada:Sportsnet United States:ESPN | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Jon Sciambi andChris Singleton | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The2016 American League Wild Card Game was aplay-in game duringMajor League Baseball's (MLB)2016 postseason played between theAmerican League's (AL) twowild card teams, theToronto Blue Jays and theBaltimore Orioles. As both teams finished with identical 89–73 records, atiebreaker was used to determine the host team. In accordance withMLB tiebreaking rules, the Blue Jays earned the right to host the game by winning their season series against the Orioles 10–9.
The Blue Jays beat the Orioles, 5–2, inextra innings. This was the Orioles' last postseason appearance until 2023.
This was Toronto's first appearance in theWild Card Game and their first overall appearance as a wild card (when it was first introduced in 1995), and their second consecutive postseason appearance after winning theAL East Division theprevious season. It was the second appearance in a Wild Card Game both for Baltimore and its managerBuck Showalter. Showalter's Orioles defeated theTexas Rangers in the inauguralAL Wild Card Game in 2012. This was the first postseason meeting between the two teams.
The game was played at 8:00 pm EDT on October 4, 2016, atRogers Centre inToronto, with the winner advancing to play the first-seededTexas Rangers in theDivision Series.[3][4] It was televised in the United States onTBS, whileSportsnet, a property of Blue Jays ownerRogers Communications, simulcast the TBS production in Canada.
Theretractable dome at Rogers Centre was open for the game, the first time this was done for a postseason contest at the venue.[5]
This was the second Wild Card Game played between teams with identical regular season records, and the second time for theBaltimore Orioles. Under the 1995-2011 playoff format, the teams would have played aone-game playoff to determine the Wild Card team.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | R | H | E | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Baltimore | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Toronto | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
| WP:Francisco Liriano (1–0) LP:Ubaldo Jiménez (0–1) Home runs: BAL:Mark Trumbo (1) TOR:José Bautista (1),Edwin Encarnación (1) Attendance: 49,934 Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| External videos | |
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 American League Wild Card Game Full replay on the MLB's official YouTube channel |
Toronto and Baltimore turned to their Opening Day starters, asMarcus Stroman andChris Tillman took the mound for their respective teams.
The Blue Jays scored first with a home run byJosé Bautista leading off the second inning.[6] The Orioles responded two innings later with a go-ahead two-run homer fromMark Trumbo.[7] The Blue Jays recorded three hits in the fifth on their way to scoring the tying run.[8]
The Toronto Blue Jays won the game 5–2 in the 11th inning whenEdwin Encarnación hit a walk-off three-run homer offUbaldo Jiménez.[9]Zach Britton, the Orioles'closer and 2016American League Reliever of the Year, controversially did not appear in the game, as Orioles manager Buck Showalter elected to pitch Ubaldo Jimenez; Showalter later indicated he was waiting for the Orioles to take the lead and use Britton to close out the game.[10][11] The Blue Jays advanced to the American League Division Series to face the Rangers for the second consecutive time in the postseason; their first meeting was inthe previous year's American League Division Series.
Encarnación became only the fourth player to end a winner-take-all postseason game (that is, a game in which one team or the other was sure to be eliminated) with a walk-off home run, joiningBill Mazeroski (1960 World Series),Chris Chambliss (1976 ALCS) andAaron Boone (2003 ALCS).[12]
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