Looking back at all Blue Jays playoff opponents as first meeting with New York Yankees looms

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History will be made when the Toronto Blue Jays finally take on an historic division rival in the playoffs this weekend.

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Sure, they did play fellow American League East club Tampa Bay in the 2020 wild card series, and beat the Baltimore Orioles in a 2016 wild card game, but with apologies to the Rays or Orioles, they aren’t really the same calibre of arch-rival as either the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.

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Those juggernauts battled it out Thursday night for a spot in the American League Division Series and the Yankees won a second straight game after dropping the opener, to advance to play a Jays team that finished with the same record through 162 games.

Most Jays fans don’t harbour much ill will toward either the Rays, who joined the AL East only when they were added as an expansion club in 1998, or even the Orioles, who have been in a division with Toronto since the Jays began play in 1977.

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But the Yankees and Red Sox? Different kettle of fish altogether because of their championship banners, legions of Canadian fans and overwhelming presence in the sport.

Finally, in its 11th trip to the post-season, Toronto will take on the Yankees. We’ll have to wait on Toronto vs. Boston, which has become so commonplace in the NHL.

It wasn’t even possible for the Jays to meet either New York or Boston in the playoffs until the wild card was added in 1994 (with its start in 1995 due to the strike). Before that, only one team from the AL East advanced.

Here’s how the Jays have fared against other teams in the post-season (ordered by earliest meeting):

KANSAS CITY ROYALS

1985 ALCS, 2015 ALCS

After winning its first division crown, Toronto was favoured and seen as an emerging powerhouse (second-best record in Major League Baseball, compared to the third-best this season) and even built up a 3-1 series lead. With dreams of as first World Series appearance around the corner, the Jays heartbreakingly dropped three straight. This was the first year the ALCS was a best-of-seven, which ended up being a major factor.

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The Royals went on to win it all against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The franchises would meet again 30 years later, again in the league championship series, but the feel-good Jays fell in six games despite having a team most believed was good enough to win it all.

Though favoured again, Toronto got blown out in Game 1 and again in Game 4 to go down 3-1. After cruising in Game 5, the Jays lost a one-run game to bow out.

OAKLAND ATHLETICS

1989 ALCS, 1992 ALCS

Oakland was the class of baseball when the teams squared off to end the 1980s and it showed.

Rickey Henderson went 6-for-15, added seven walks and didn’t strike out once in an all-time series performance. Toronto’s pitchers struggled and the team was done in five games.

Revenge came three years later when Roberto Alomar hit his memorable homer against Dennis Eckersley, Tom Henke was brilliant out of the bullpen and the Jays won in six games.

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MINNESOTA TWINS

1991 ALCS, Wild Card series 2023

Alomar starred in this one too, but the offence managed a single home run in five games. The heart of the Twins order, led by the great Kirby Puckett, was the difference against a new-look Jays team that wasn’t quite where it would be just a year later but had a chance to go up 2-1 before losing Game 3 in 10 innings.

In 2023, Toronto got the AL’s final playoff spot but didn’t do much against the Twins, who actually had fewer wins, but won their division.

Toronto managed just one run in a series most-remembered for the inexplicable decision to pull a cruising Jose Berrios in the fourth inning of a game.

ATLANTA BRAVES

1992 World Series

After dispatching Oakland, Toronto became the first non-American team to win the World Series, defeating Atlanta in six games. Three of the Jays wins were by only a single run.

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The additions of future Hall-of-Famers Dave Winfield and Jack Morris helped bolster an already strong group.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX

1993 ALCS

Having already won it all once, the Jays entered the next year confident, but had to prove it against a Chicago team that finished only a game back of Toronto’s AL-best record.

The Jays couldn’t hold on to a 2-0 series lead, dropping two straight south of the border, but Juan Guzman and Dave Stewart came through with gems in Games 5 and 6 and Toronto returned to the World Series.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

1993 World Series

You might remember Joe Carter hitting one over the wall off Phillies closer Mitch Williams. The highlight has been played a time or two since. It was only the second series-winning walkoff home run and the Jays became just the seventh back-to-back winners.

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Paul Molitor hit an even .500 to take home MVP honours, Alomar batted .480 and the team batted .311 with a near-.900 OPS in pounding the Phillies pitchers. Meanwhile, Toronto’s bullpen sizzled in the series.

It appeared the franchise was on the verge of a dynasty …

TEXAS RANGERS

2015 ALDS, 2016 ALDS

However, incredibly, the Jays wouldn’t return to the playoffs for 22 years.

Before falling to the Royals, they came back from an 0-2 hole against Texas and surged ahead in Game 5 behind Jose Bautista’s bat flip home run.

The teams would meet again the next year at the same stage and Toronto triumphed again. This time it was a rout, which included a 10-1 opening game victory.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES

2016 Wild card game

Back when these were one-game affairs, host Toronto won in memorable fashion. Edwin Encarnacion walked it off with a three-run shot in the eleventh inning, beating a division rival in the playoffs for the first time.

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CLEVELAND GUARDIANS

2016 ALCS

All of the good feelings of the wins over Baltimore and Texas disappeared quickly against Cleveland.

The offence dried up as Toronto lost three tight games before scoring five runs in Game 4. They lost the next one and scored only three runs in the four Cleveland wins.

TAMPA BAY RAYS

2020 AL wild card series

The Jays didn’t put up much of a fight to finish off a strange COVID-shortened year. Tampa took Game 1 by a 3-1 score and then Game 2 easily, 8-2. Still, the young Jays got some playoff experience.

SEATTLE MARINERS

2022 AL Wild Card series

A couple of years later came one of the lowest points in the club’s post-season history. Yes, it wasn’t a high-stakes series, just the first stage, but a 4-0 home loss was ugly and what followed about 10 times moreso.

In Game 2, Toronto built an 8-1 lead but ended up falling 10-9 with Bo Bichette and George Springer having a nasty collision that helped propel the Mariners’ rally, and that was that.

Toronto has not won a playoff game since 2016.

@WolstatSun

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