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With two out in the ninth and closer extraordinaire Jordan Romano on the mound.

After all the bad that had suddenly transpired 鈥� collision on a blooper between George Springer and Bo Bichette, Springer spread-eagled on the turf and worrisomely still, ultimately carted off the field and you could practically see the tweetybirds circling around his head, three Seattle runs crossing the plate on a slashed double to draw even at 9-9 鈥� surely the baseball gods would get off Toronto鈥檚 back.

No mercy.

Line drive to right and the Mariners, at one point trailing 8-1, beat the Jays down 10-9, because there鈥檇 be no bottom of the ninth grace note for 海角社区官网to force extras.

A season of immense hopes, a team that had rediscovered its mojo down a commanding regular season stretch, is done for 2022, swept in their own yard. Going home with heads hung low and rightly so.

This was a disaster of spectacular and incomprehensible proportions.

How could safe as houses collapse, the roof falling in?

Well, pick your blunder 鈥� but start with the bullpen and the manager鈥檚 maladroit handling of it. There is added clarity, of course, when looking through the rear-view mirror. But this game went ruinously off the rails from the moment interim skipper John Schneider took the ball from starter Kevin Gausman and handed it to lefty reliever Tim Mayza.

Yes, Gausman had given up three straight singles but there were also two outs and Kevvy G鈥檚 splitter hadn鈥檛 lost any of its bite. More crucially, this was precisely why the Jays headhunted him in the off-season, preferring his stuff on an outlay of $110 million (U.S.) over a reclamation project turned Cy Young Award winner.

Fittingly, it was Gausman versus that very same Robbie Ray with 海角社区官网on the ropes in a best-of-three wild-card series. Ray lasted three innings plus one batter, driven off the mound early by a Jays lineup strafing left and right, most especially the two-run blast off the bat of Teoscar Hern谩ndez in the second inning 鈥� and made it a brace of bombs in the fourth.

Mayza, the southpaw Schneider favoured with a switch-hitter in the box, immediately delivered a wild pitch that scored Ty France, then handed Santana a 91-m.p.h. lolly that the DH deposited over the left-centre fence, three-run spot.

鈥淚 thought it sequenced out pretty well,鈥� Schneider said at his post-game press conference 鈥� though, respectfully, I wonder what the skipper might have to say after pondering the same question for a few hours. 鈥淭immy Mayza is a tough guy to get underneath and hit the ball out of the ballpark.鈥�

Figured, Schneider did, that Mayza would at least keep the ball on the ground. Nope.

鈥淓specially, we like that with Santana right-handed as opposed to left-handed 鈥� There鈥檚 always going to be times where I could sit here for about six months and second-guess myself, but right now I don鈥檛.

鈥淵ou trust the guys that got you here. You trust your entire roster. That sucks right now, but again, the guys that did the job they did to get here, I鈥檒l never have any fear about putting them in again.鈥�

Except Gausman 鈥� long and rangy, furiously chewing his wad of gum 鈥� was still more or less clicking along nicely and, at 95 pitches, had something left in the tank when he departed, touching the brim of his cap to acknowledge the sellout crowd鈥檚 standing ovation.

It was all bibbidi-boo, frankly, and wham 鈥� three more runs charged to Gausman on four pitches by Mayza.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 what post-season baseball is about,鈥� Gausman offered in the post-elimination gloom. He knows from ghastly playoff extermination of course, bowing out as a Giant in five games last year to the Dodgers, a sour coda to San Francisco鈥檚 107-win season. But this was his first ever start in a do-or-die game.

鈥淭he momentum swings are even bigger in the post-season. You know, I was really happy that we were able to get the crowd in it early as opposed to (Friday), Luis Castillo just kind of silenced the crowd with his pitching. To be able to go out today and come out strong and take the lead 鈥� I mean, at one point we were up 8-1.鈥�

Yeah, that merits repeating.

鈥淥bviously, I think about the sixth inning for me. A lot of bloop hits, but in my mind the thinking is, looking back on what I could have done, to not be in that situation. I got two outs but if I could have just been a little bit better earlier in the game, maybe I have more pitches to kind of work with. That鈥檚 on me, and it鈥檚 frustrating to go into the off-season with what-if.

鈥淥bviously hindsight is 20/20. If Tim comes in, he gets a ground ball first pitch, everybody is 鈥� that鈥檚 baseball, right? Sometimes things don鈥檛 go the way that you planned.鈥�

Even with Toronto鈥檚 lead cut to 8-5, a whiff of hope for the previously distantly trailing visitors and a twinge of dread for what had been a magisterially dominating home side, there was no looming sense of doom approaching.

But the consequences, like the Mariners, just kept coming.

And the bullpen dominoes just kept falling: from Anthony Bass ripped for three runs, couldn鈥檛 get anybody out; to Toronto鈥檚 glossy closer Romano, called upon in the eighth, like he had five outs in his back pocket; then segue to Adam Cimber after Seattle had scavenged the one run they ultimately needed.

Like, where would Schneider have gone if the Jays had managed a responding run of their own? Yusei Kikuchi? With Springer in triage and Whit Merrifield out of the game earlier, struck in the head by the first pitch thrown by Diego Castillo 鈥� no way that was a delivery gone innocently awry.

A beautiful game for the Jays through five-plus innings. An utter horror thereafter.

This is going to hurt for a long, long time.