Game No. 162 traditionally means very little for the Toronto Blue Jays.
This year is a rarity.
For just the fourth time in 45 seasons, the Blue Jays enter the final day of the regular season playing for what could be their playoff lives.
The powerful American League East is the biggest reason the Blue Jays are one of four teams fighting for two playoff spots on Sunday.
Here’s a look at the three other times the Blue Jays played in pivotal season finales.
Oct. 4, 1987 – Tigers 1, Blue Jays 0
Up by 3 ½ games on the Tigers with seven games left, the Blue Jays appeared to have a firm grip on the AL East for the second time in three years.
But the Tigers avoided a four-game sweep by the Blue Jays in the finale of a series in Toronto on Sept. 27, triggering a Toronto collapse.
It was the start of a season-ending seven-game losing streak for Toronto, capped by three losses in Detroit against the Tigers, who overtook Toronto to win the division.
With his Tigers leading Toronto by one game entering the finale, Frank Tanana gave up six hits for a complete-game shutout. Blue Jays left-hander Jimmy Key allowed just three hits in eight innings, but one of them was a second-inning home run by Larry Herndon.
Afterward, Key was asked if the Jays choked.
“That’s not right,” Key told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s horrible, terrible. When you win 96 games, there’s no choking. If that’s a choke, then what did the other 21 teams do.”
Oct. 3, 1990 – Orioles 3, Blue Jays 2
As is the case for the 2021 Blue Jays on Sunday, Toronto needed help 31 years ago to make the playoffs on the final day of the regular season.
The Jays didn’t get it.
The Boston Red Sox clinched the AL East with a 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park while the Blue Jays were still playing in Baltimore. Less than 10 minutes after Boston wrapped up its win, Toronto reliever Tom Henke gave up the game-winning homer with two out in the ninth.
“I’d be lying if I said my heart didn’t go down when I saw we had no chance, but professionalism took over and I wanted to win,” Henke told The Associated Press. “I’m not going to hang my head. I did my best all year.”
Toronto lost six of its final eight games, including two of three to Boston in its penultimate series, giving the Red Sox the opening to capture the pennant.
Oct. 2, 2016 – Blue Jays 2, Red Sox 1
After losing four of five to kick off the final week of the schedule, the Blue Jays rebounded in the nick of time.
Toronto won its final two games of the year in Boston, clinching a playoff spot and home field in the AL wild-card game against Baltimore.
A Detroit loss earlier in the day ensured the Jays would be in the playoffs. But Toronto still needed to beat Boston to lock up home field. Starter Aaron Sanchez took a no-hitter into the seventh before Troy Tulowitzki broke an eighth-inning tie with a single. Roberto Osuna closed it out in the ninth.
“For it to come down to (Game No.) 162 and me being out there … there was a lot at stake in that game, and it was in my hands,” Sanchez said.
The Blue Jays went on to beat Baltimore in the wild card game on Edwin Encarnacion’s walk-off home run in the 11th inning at Rogers Centre. Toronto then swept Texas in the ALDS before falling to Cleveland in the ALCS.
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