TORONTO – An entire country waited 32 years for the World Series to return here.
On Friday night, it sounded like the entire population of Canada was under the roof at Rogers Centre, trying to call it off when Addison Barger hit the grand slam that broke open the Blue Jays’ Game 1 victory over the Dodgers.
“This is a special place to play,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Everyone here in this city, here, in this building and across the country, we’re definitely feeling it.”
There have been many reminders of that throughout this postseason – and the regular season, as the Yankees can attest – with the Blue Jays feeding off of playing for an entire country, which plays out differently for those who have played elsewhere.
“When you first come here, everyone always says you’re not just playing for a city, you’re playing for a country,” said right-hander Chris Bassitt, in his third year with the team. “I don’t think you’ll really understand that until you’ve been here for a while.”
It leads to a raw home advantage. The Blue Jays’ 54-27 record at home during the regular season was the second-best mark in the Majors, behind only the Phillies.
And on Friday, they improved to 5-2 here in these playoffs – the Mariners proved to be the lone exception when they won Games 1 and 2 of the ALCS here, only to come back with a 3-2 lead, one win away from the World Series, and drop both games.
The Yankees in particular were confused as to why they couldn’t win at Rogers Center this season.
Including the ALDS, they went 1-8 here this year (compared to 5-3 against the Blue Jays in The Bronx), including a four-game sweep in early July that coincided with Canada Day, which Schneider referred to Thursday as one of the turning points in the Blue Jays’ season.
Of course, it helps to have the kind of ruthless lineup that the Blue Jays have.
The same problems they gave the Yankees all season occurred again on Friday night against Blake Snell and the Dodgers bullpen. It was a typical Blue Jays game, which had Snell working from the start, upping his pitch count so they could knock him out of the game in the sixth inning, when they exploded for nine runs — first with singles and walks before the big home runs served as knockout punches.
Barger’s grand slam caused chaos among the sold-out crowd, with beer flying from the top deck and fans jumping to their feet and hugging everyone around them.
They had been waiting a long time for a night like this, when the Blue Jays played in their first World Series since 1993.
That was the year Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run to win it all, an iconic moment that has been replayed ever since.
But the Blue Jays are creating new clips that may be replayed forever — George Springer’s go-ahead homer in Game 7 of the ALCS, Barger’s grand slam on Friday — around these parts if they can get the job done.
“No one has really talked about it [the championship drought]“Because it felt like it was so impossible to do,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “Now that we’re here, it’s all back to normal and I think it’s great for the country in which it’s played. Now we have this opportunity.”
Kiner-Falefa grew up a Yankees fan in Hawaii before playing for them from 2022-2023. But during his second stint with the Blue Jays, he recognized how “different” things play here.
“The Yankee fanbase is incredible, I just didn’t realize the reach [of the Blue Jays]Kiner-Falefa said. “I thought there would be more Mariners on the west coast of Canada, but they were all on our side. The way they embraced us [is special]. And I think the lack of a winning history also makes it more special. If you can deliver something that they haven’t had yet, that’s why we got the response we got. That was special, I didn’t expect it to be like that.”
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