One of the longest postseason droughts in baseball will continue for another year, with the Toronto Blue Jays officially eliminated from playoff contention on Tuesday. Toronto beat Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners, 10-2, but with the Kansas City Royals' (86-71) 7-1 win over Cleveland the Blue Jays (80-77) were eliminated, missing out on the playoffs for a 21st straight season.
Blue Jays mathematically eliminated from postseason contention
Toronto last made the playoffs in 1993.
Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Since the Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992-93, the club has found itself in baseball’s friend zone, neither truly bad enough to rebuild nor actually good enough to really contend for any sustained period of time. In the last 21 years, the Blue Jays have lost 90 games just once (in 2004, when they finished 68-94), but have also never won more than 88 games in a season during that span.
The team truly stuck in the middle owns a 2014 record of 80-77, which seems fitting for a club that has hovered close to .500 for over two decades.
Toronto rode a hot May (21-9) into first place in the American League East, and spent 61 days atop the division, the last of which was July 3.
It has been a streaky season for the Blue Jays with winning streaks of nine, six, six, five and five games, but also losing streaks of six, five, four and four games.
The Blue Jays got good seasons out of their two best hitters, with both Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion eclipsing 30 home runs and a .900 OPS. But Encarnacion missed 33 games on the disabled list with a strained right quadriceps. Toronto was only one game out of first place in the AL East when Encarnacion got hurt, but by the time he got back the team was 7½ games back.
Looking ahead to 2015, Toronto will still have Bautista and Encarnacion, and perhaps a full season on the mound out of Marcus Stroman. The 23-year-old right-hander was drafted in the first round by Toronto in 2012, and in his first stint in a major league rotation was 11-6 with a 3.77 ERA in 25 games, including 20 starts.
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