Heartbreak strikes twice as the Blue Jays’ magical season comes to an end

Two outs… that was the only thing separating the Toronto Blue Jays from their first World Series championship in 32 years.

Fueled by Bo Bichette’s signature moment as a Blue Jay, a crucial three-run explosion that catapulted this franchise to an early lead in Game 7, and a huge insurance run from Andrés Giménez in the sixth inning, Toronto had a crucial 4-3 lead when it turned to closer Jeff Hoffman for a four-out save.

With just one swing, all the momentum Toronto had built up disappeared instantly. It sucked the air out of a deafening sold-out crowd at Rogers Center.

After Hoffman retired Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith (who had another big moment later) to end the top of the ninth, the Blue Jays’ resilience surfaced in the bottom half, as it has all year. They pulled off a nasty rally to load the bases with just one out against Yoshinobu Yamamoto – who came out of the bullpen after starting in Game 6 a day ago.

But one of the best regular-season comeback teams — which led the Majors with 49 come-from-behind wins — fell short in Game 7, and by just an inch.

Rojas saved the Dodgers’ season twice in the same inning, making a sensational throw to home plate on a grounder by Daulton Varsho to pick up Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The Blue Jays, however, called a Hail Mary, hoping the replay review would show that Smith’s right foot was in the air when Kiner-Falefa hit home.

But in the end it was all for nothing.

Baseball is a beautiful game, sometimes determining which team got the most breaks. In Saturday’s winner-take-all Game 7, fate was not on Toronto’s side, but on Los Angeles’s.

Still, even after Smith’s solo homer in the 11th, the Blue Jays still had a chance to keep their Game 7 hopes alive. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. started the last-ditch rally against Yamamoto with a leadoff double, putting the tying run 180 feet from home plate. Kiner-Falefa pushed him to third with a sacrifice bunt, and with Addison Barger drawing a walk with one out, they were busy when Alejandro Kirk stepped to the plate.

All things considered, looking back on these last two games, it was a lack of execution in advantageous moments at the plate that proved to be the Blue Jays’ biggest downfall. In Games 6 and 7, their offense finished just 4-for-26 with runners in scoring position, leaving 22 baserunners behind. On Saturday alone, they left 14 runners on base, tying a World Series record tied by the 1924 New York Giants.

In the aftermath, this team held strong First official meeting throughout the season, where manager John Schneider had a message for his staff and players: “Thank you. I probably said thank you about ten times.”

It won’t be the last time he speaks to them in 2025. But after their season ended in one of the most epic Game 7s in World Series history, he let everyone know how much he appreciated their efforts over the past nine months, going back to the start of spring training.

Eventually, we’ll learn the long list of injuries and ailments these Blue Jays players endured to be just two outs away from tasting playoff immortality. But that’s a story for another day. There will be plenty of time for those headlines soon.

Toronto was the better, deeper team in the World Series this year. But sometimes that’s not enough. Unfortunately, they won’t have much time to sit with this pain. The only downside to playing so deep into the calendar is that the off-season comes very quickly.

Now that the Dodgers have lifted their second World Series trophy in as many seasons, free agency will open in five days, and the Blue Jays brass will have plenty of pressing questions to answer.

Those are holes that need to be filled if this organization wants to build on this unique season. Along the same lines, they also permanently moved the “goalposts” with this run. Simply sneaking into the playoffs isn’t good enough anymore. Expectations will be much, much higher from now on.

This season has changed what the Blue Jays stand for as a franchise. Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, anything short of a top-level threat in the American League will be a disappointment. And if they can get back to the postseason — which isn’t a given from year to year in any professional sport — it will certainly be a championship or bust.

That’s the standard they set here. So all they can hope for, through all the emotional tears and hugs, is that it fuels them during this rejuvenated period of competition.