TORONTO — An entire country waited 32 years for the World Series to return here.
On Friday night, it sounded as if the full population of Canada was under the roof at Rogers Centre, trying to blow it off when Addison Barger belted the grand slam that broke open the Game 1 Blue Jays win 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 feel it for sure.”
There have been plenty of reminders of that throughout this postseason — and regular season, as the Yankees can attest — with the Blue Jays feeding off of playing for an entire country, which hits different for those who have played elsewhere.
“Once you first get here, everyone always says you’re playing for not just 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 really understand that until you’re here for a little bit.”
It leads to a raucous home-field 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 proving to be the only 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 at a loss for why they could not win at Rogers Centre this season.
Including the ALDS, they went 1-8 here this year (compared to 5-3 against the Blue Jays in The Bronx), which included a four-game sweep at the beginning of July that coincided with Canada Day, which Schneider on Thursday referred to as one of the turning points to the Blue Jays’ season.
Of course, it helps to have the kind of relentless lineup the Blue Jays do.
The same trouble they gave the Yankees all season showed up again on Friday night against Blake Snell and the Dodgers bullpen. It was a quintessential Blue Jays game, making Snell work from the start and raising his pitch count so they could knock him out of the game by 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 sent the sellout crowd into mayhem, beer flying from the upper deck and fans jumping and hugging everyone around them.
They had waited a long time to have a night like this, the Blue Jays playing 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 since been played on a loop.
But the Blue Jays are creating new clips that may join it in being 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 are able to finish the job.
“No one really talked about [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 up and I think it’s great for the country that that’s being played. Now we have this opportunity.”
Kiner-Falefa grew up a Yankees fan in Hawaii before playing for them from 2022-2023. But in his second stint with the Blue Jays, he acknowledged how “different” it is playing here.
“The Yankee fan base is incredible, I just didn’t realize the reach [of the Blue Jays],” Kiner-Falefa said. “I thought west coast of Canada was gonna be more Mariners, but they were all on our side. The way they’ve embraced us [is special]. And I think not having the history of winning also makes it more special. When you’re able to deliver something they haven’t had is why we got the reaction we did. That was special, I wasn’t expecting it to be like that.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
