Blue Jays clinch first AL East crown in 22 years with rout of Orioles

BALTIMORE -- The Toronto Blue Jays yelled, hugged and jumped for joy around the mound after clinching their first AL East title in 22 years.

Two months earlier, such a celebration was almost impossible to imagine. Yet, with their 15-2 rout of Baltimore on Wednesday, the Blue Jays brought an appropriate conclusion to their unstoppable, late-season run.

Toronto entered the doubleheader needing only one victory to eliminate the New York Yankees and claim its first division title since 1993. The suspense ended quickly as the Blue Jays built a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning before adding four unearned runs in the fifth.

The remaining innings were a mere prelude to a celebration more than two decades in the making. There were several hundred blue-clad Toronto fans in the small crowd that gathered for the makeup of a game washed out by rain on Tuesday.

"You're on the road, but it felt like a home game," said Marcus Stroman, who pitched eight strong innings. "I thought the majority of the stadium was Blue Jays fans. So that just goes to show how excited people are to take the trip down from the North to see us clinch. It's been special."

Because there was a second game to be played, the Blue Jays opted to put off the champagne celebration until after the nightcap. After waiting this long to toast a division title, a few hours probably weren't going to make much of a difference.

"Everyone is elated," Stroman said. "Everyone is ecstatic and happy. But we have 30 minutes in between games, so we have to lock it back in quickly. I am sure there will be a celebration postgame."

Stroman (4-0) allowed one run and five hits with eight strikeouts in his fourth start since returning from left knee surgery.

Jose Bautista hit his 40th home run, Edwin Encarnacion hit his No. 37th and Justin Smoak also homered for Toronto. Ryan Goins had a career-high five hits to help the Blue Jays win their sixth straight.

Toronto was fourth in the AL East on the morning of July 29 with a 50-51 record, eight games behind the Yankees. But boosted by the acquisitions of David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, Ben Revere, LaTroy Hawkins and Mark Lowe, the Blue Jays won 42 of their next 56 games, outscoring opponents 342-200. They ended the major league's longest playoff drought on Sept. 26 when they clinched no worse than a wild-card berth.

General manager Alex Anthopoulos insists that in late July, the goal was merely to reach the playoffs.

"We felt we had a real good team that underachieved to this point," Anthopoulos said outside the Toronto clubhouse. "We knew we were playing New York a lot. We were playing the Twins. We were playing the Rangers. We were playing the Orioles.

"So, our last two months, we were playing really good teams that we were going to chase. So we thought we had a shot. There is no doubt about it. If we didn't play New York as many times, maybe things wouldn't have been the same."

Stroman's exceptional pitching this month added to the surge. The right-hander has a 1.67 ERA and has beaten the Yankees twice.

In their first postseason appearance since Joe Carter's World Series-winning homer sealed their second straight title, the Blue Jays open the AL Division Series at home on Oct. 8. They are just ahead of defending AL champion Kansas City for best record in the AL, which would bring a matchup against the wild-card winner.

A year ago, Baltimore celebrated its first AL East title since 1997. On Wednesday, the Orioles watched their successors end an even longer wait.

"Congratulations to them. They earned it," Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. "We had something that people came after, and they took it from us."

This was Baltimore's first game since being officially eliminated from playoff contention, and it showed. Seven pitchers combined to issue 10 walks, and the Orioles committed four errors despite coming in with the best fielding percentage in the majors.

"We've got to be better than that. That was disappointing," Showalter said. "In any form of life, when you take hope out of the picture it really challenges you mentally and emotionally. We didn't respond to that in the first game."

After Miguel Gonzalez (9-12) walked three and gave up four runs in 3 2/3 innings, errant throws by pitcher Jason Garcia and first baseman Chris Davis on the same play fueled a fifth-inning uprising that turned the game into a rout.

Steve Pearce homered in the seventh for Baltimore. The loss dropped the Orioles to 76-81, ending any hope they had of salvaging a winning season.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Blue Jays: Tulowitzki (back, shoulder) is rapidly mending and could return before the postseason, manager John Gibbons said.

Orioles: CF Adam Jones remains sidelined with back problems. He's played in one game since Sept. 20.

ON DECK

Thursday's series finale was moved up to 12:05 p.m. from 7:05 because of the threat of rain. David Price (17-5, 2.34 ERA) pitches for Toronto and rookie Tyler Wilson (2-2, 3.60 ERA) is on the mound for Baltimore.