TORONTO — Toronto Blue Jays fans across the country are heartbroken after their hopes of seeing the team win its first World Series in 32 years were dashed by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 in extra innings Saturday after a tense Game 7 in front of a sell-out crowd at Rogers Centre.
Fans were left stunned after the Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning, evening out the score 4-4, and Will Smith’s 11th-inning home run clinched the game for L.A.
Earlier in the game, it seemed like Bo Bichette’s three-run homer in the third inning would lead the Jays to victory.
“It will hurt for a few days, a few weeks, when you’re that close,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
Sombre fans leaving the Rogers Centre said the final outcome was gut-wrenching after the Jays’ unforgettable playoff ride united people across Toronto and the rest of the country.
One fan sat against the wall, head in his hands. Others wiped away tears in disbelief.
“I don’t even have words. I think I felt every emotion today … We almost had it,” Michelle Yuen said. “It felt like we were all holding our breath for so many innings straight.”
Yuen said she has been a Blue Jays fan since childhood, and she was a toddler when the team won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
For millions of fans across the country who were united by the Jays’ playoff run, the hope of seeing them win their first championship in 32 years was dashed.
“We’ve been …. waiting for a moment like this for years now, so to see us come so close and just fall so short is very gut-wrenching and heartbreaking,” said Amr Altaweel, who watched the game with a large crowd at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square.
Derek Shank, who remembers going to Blue Jays’ games with his grandmother as a little kid, said he was “gutted.”
“They had it, they literally had it and they just coughed it up,” he said outside the ballpark, adding that the Jays have been “an amazing team” this season.
Along the way, diehards were joined by baseball converts in a fan base stretched out between three coasts and united behind one team whose underdog credentials and endearing cast of players appeared to capture the attention of even the most casual Canadian sports fan. Jays hats and jerseys were the hottest fall fashion trend in Toronto.
“You know, the Jays might have lost today – they lost the game, but I’m sure they won many, many, many, many fans,” Mohammad Almhissen said after the watch party at Nathan Phillips Square fizzled out.
“I think this is just the start. Baseball is just going up from now.”
