Last year it was Jose Bautista. This year it's Edwin Encarnacion who flipped his bat as he hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles. The Jays will now travel to Texas to face the Rangers for a rematch in the ALDS starting on Thursday.
Things didn't look good for the Jays who thrice ended innings with double play with two of them hit by second baseman Cecil Travis who had hit into one the entire regular season. Complicating matters was an apparent injury to Jays closer Roberto Osuna. If they lose the 20-year old Osuna, the Blue Jays will likely have to rely on the nearly 40-year old Jason Grilli to close games. But the Jays will cross the bridge when it comes.
While the Jays get to go to Texas, Orioles manager Buck Showalter will be second guessed as to why he didn't bring in his closer and Cy Young candidate Zach Britton. Instead, Showalter brought in Ubaldo Jimenez. In 2010, this would have been a no-brainer. But Jimenez is a shadow of his former self. Jimenez did not retire a single batter givng up singles to Travis and Josh Donaldson before giving up the gopher ball to Encarnacion.
This was the Orioles' season and Zach Britton is their best pitcher. That he wasn't used in this game is mind boggling. Showalter didn't have a better answer than to say, "Nobody's pitched better than Ubaldo." I haven't heard that statement since 2010. I guess Showalter didn't want to put Britton in unless the O's had a lead on the road. But that lead would never come.
Nevertheless watching this game was infinitely better than watching Tim Kaine interrupting Mike Pence.
The Blue Jays-Rangers rematch is going to be exciting and tense. After Bautista's bat flip last year and Rougned Odor's punch to Bautista's face this year there is a lot of unfinished business between the two clubs. I wouldn't be surprised that there's a baseball game and a hockey match breaks out at some point in the proceedings.
Until then there is still the NL Wild Card to be settled between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets tomorrow night. The pitching match up between Madison Bumgarner and Noah Syndergaard should be fun. But who knows? Maybe it'll be a 9-8 game.
Yet at this moment the man of the hour is Edwin Encarnacion. He will probably be in another uniform next season. But right now Encarnacion is the most popular man in Canada.
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