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TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays punched their postseason ticket without taking the field, so the celebration will wait until Friday night.

The Blue Jays locked up an American League wild-card spot a night earlier when Baltimore lost 5-3 at Boston.

“It was easy,” interim manager John Schneider said jokingly Friday before Toronto hosted Boston. “It was a little weird. You become a Boston Red Sox fan for about three hours and then you turn it off. Definitely different, but no matter how you do it, doing it is the most important part.”

Schneider said the Blue Jays plan to celebrate in the clubhouse together following the game against the Red Sox.

“We expect more, but we definitely need to enjoy this,” Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette said.

Schneider started out watching Thursday’s Orioles game on TV but, getting antsy in the late innings, decided to step out for a walk. That’s what he was doing when his wife and two sons called from the family home in Florida, with wife Jess providing play-by-play of the final outs over FaceTime.

“She was pretty much spot on,” Schneider said. “She even knew that Cedric Mullins had a hit through the shift.”

Outfielder George Springer spent most of Thursday afternoon playing with his young son but tuned in to watch the end of the Orioles game.

“Weird, but awesome,” he said of the experience. “It just allows you to breathe a little bit. Obviously, you might want to do it a bit of a different way but, at the end of the day, who cares? It’s awesome to say that we’re going to the playoffs no matter what.”

Springer had previous experience clinching away from the ballpark. In 2018, Springer and the Houston Astros wrapped up the AL West when, hours after beating the Blue Jays in Toronto, Oakland lost to Seattle.

“It was like 3 in the morning,” Springer said. “The whole team was sleeping.”

The Blue Jays last reached the playoffs in the 60-game pandemic season of 2020, but there were no fans in the stands when they beat the New York Yankees in Buffalo, New York, home of Toronto’s Triple-A team.

Toronto split its 2021 season between three sites: its spring training stadium in Dunedin, Florida, Buffalo, and Toronto.

A crowd of approximately 45,000 people was expected at Rogers Centre on Friday.

“It’s definitely different doing it in front of the fans and having had the fans through an entire season with us here at the park,” Bichette said. “Definitely excited to enjoy it with them and hopefully finish strong so we have an opportunity to play in front of them.”

Toronto (87-69) has six games remaining, three against the Red Sox and three in Baltimore. The Blue Jays lead the wild-card race ahead of Seattle (85-70) and Tampa Bay (85-71). The team that finishes atop the standings will host all three games of the wild-card playoff round.

“We have everything right in front of us, so the work does not stop,” Schneider said.

Last season, the Blue Jays went 91-71 but finished one game out of a playoff spot, making this year’s clinch all the more satisfying.

“It shows you that all the hard work, all the extra attention to the small things, it worked,” Springer said. “Obviously, there’s still a job to be done, but that’s something to hold our heads up high and say we accomplished our goal, which was to make the postseason.”

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Sale, Crochet named comeback players of year

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Sale, Crochet named comeback players of year

LAS VEGAS — Left-handers Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves and Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox won Major League Baseball’s Comeback Player of the Year awards on Thursday.

Cleveland right-hander Emmanuel Clase won his second AL Reliever of the Year award and St. Louis righty Ryan Helsley won the NL honor.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani joined David Ortiz as the only players to win four straight Outstanding Designated Hitter awards. Ohtani and the New York YankeesAaron Judge won Hank Aaron Awards as the outstanding offensive performers in their leagues.

Major League Baseball made the announcements at its All-MLB Awards Show.

Sale, 35, was 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 177⅔ innings for the NL’s first pitching triple crown since the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2011. He earned his eighth All-Star selection and first since 2018.

Sale helped Boston to the 2018 World Series title but made just 56 starts from 2020-23, going 17-18 with a 4.86 ERA, 400 strikeouts and 79 walks over 298⅓ innings. He was acquired by Boston from the White Sox in December 2016 and made nine trips to the injured list with the Red Sox, mostly with shoulder and elbow ailments. He had Tommy John surgery on March 30, 2020, and returned to a big league mound on Aug. 14, 2021.

Sale fractured a rib while pitching in batting practice in February 2022 during the management lockout. On July 17, in his second start back, he broke his left pinkie finger when he was hit by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Aaron Hicks. Sale broke his right wrist while riding a bicycle en route to lunch on Aug. 6, ending his season.

Crochet, 25, was 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA over 32 starts for a White Sox team that set a post-1900 record of 121 losses, becoming a first-time All-Star. He struck out 209 and walked 33 in 146 innings.

He had Tommy John surgery on April 5, 2022, and returned to the major leagues on May 18, 2023. Crochet had a 3.55 ERA in 13 relief appearances in 2023, and then joined the rotation this year.

Sale and Crochet were chosen in voting by MLB.com beat writers.

Clase and Helsley were unanimous picks by a panel that included Hall of Famers Trevor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera, Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, along with John Franco and Billy Wagner. The AL award is named after Rivera and the NL honor after Hoffman.

A three-time All-Star, Clase was 4-2 with a 0.61 ERA, 66 strikeouts and 10 walks in 74⅓ innings, holding batters to a .154 average. The 26-year-old converted 47 of 50 save chances, including his last 47.

Voting was based on the regular season. Clase was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in the playoffs, allowing three home runs, one more than his regular-season total.

Helsley, a two-time All-Star, was 7-4 with a 2.04 ERA and 49 saves in 53 chances. He struck out 79 and walked 23 in 66⅓ innings.

Ohtani became the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. A two-way star limited to hitting following elbow surgery, Ohtani batted .310 and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs while stealing 59 bases.

Ortiz won the DH award five years in a row from 2003-07.

The DH award, named after Edgar Martinez, is picked in voting by team beat writers, broadcasters and public relations departments. MLB.com writers determined the finalists for the Aaron awards, and a fan vote was combined with picks from a panel of Hall of Famers and former winners to determine the selections.

Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers and 144 RBIs while hitting .322.

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QB Castellanos exits after losing BC starting job

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QB Castellanos exits after losing BC starting job

Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who lost his starting job earlier this week, will not be returning to the team, he announced Thursday night.

Castellanos, who started 12 games last season and retained the top job under new coach Bill O’Brien, wrote on X that “unfortunately, all good things come to an end, even though it’s sooner than I would like.” He did not mention the transfer portal in his departing message and has not officially entered it. The junior from Waycross, Georgia, started his career at UCF and appeared in five games in 2022.

O’Brien said Tuesday that Grayson James, who replaced Castellanos in last week’s win against Syracuse, will start Saturday when Boston College visits No. 14 SMU. Castellanos “wasn’t real thrilled” with the decision, O’Brien said, adding that the quarterback decided to step away from the team for several days.

Castellanos had 2,248 passing yards and 1,113 rushing yards last season under coach Jeff Hafley, passing for 15 touchdowns and adding 13 on the ground. He had 18 touchdown passes and only five interceptions this season, but his accuracy dipped in recent weeks, and he completed only 2 of 7 passes against Syracuse before being replaced.

In his statement, Castellanos thanked both coaching staffs he played for at Boston College and wrote that he had “some of the best experiences of my life in the Eagles Nest and I will truly cherish these memories forever.”

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Gators’ Lagway ‘ready to play,’ will start vs. LSU

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Gators' Lagway 'ready to play,' will start vs. LSU

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is “ready to play,” coach Billy Napier said Thursday on his weekly radio show.

Napier removed Lagway from the team’s injury report and penciled him in to start against No. 21 LSU in the Swamp on Saturday.

Lagway practiced every day this week while progressing from a strained left hamstring. The highly touted freshman was carted off the field against Georgia on Nov. 2. Tests revealed a “less significant” injury than initially feared, and now he’s back in time to face the Tigers.

The Gators (4-5, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) need him. They have to win two of their final three regular-season games to become bowl eligible.

LSU (6-3, 3-2) has struggled mightily against dual-threat QBs, including Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, who ran for 185 yards and four touchdowns last week.

Lagway returns after walk-on and Yale transfer Aidan Warner started in his place against Texas. Warner threw two interceptions and was 12-of-25 passing for 132 yards in a 49-17 loss.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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