Bautista ensures Blue Jays live on

TORONTO (SPORTSNET) – A seventh inning perhaps without peer in baseball history started on a play as bizarre as they come, one that left a crew of veteran umpires and replay officials in New York struggling to untangle the mess. It led to an official protest, a buoyant crowd of 49,742 turned unruly mob littered the field, and put the Texas Rangers in position for a travesty of a victory in Game 5 of the American League Division Series.

Only then, a tainted win unravelled, spectacularly, quickly, decisively. Three straight errors loaded the bases. After a fielder’s choice force at home, a looper just past second base tied the game, even if there was another force out on the play. And then Jose Bautista secured himself a spot in franchise lore with one of the biggest home runs in team history, a three-run laser beam that secured a remarkable 6-3 victory that sent the Toronto Blue Jays to the American League Championship Series.

This wasn’t just a game – it was an experience, one worthy of a book, and a documentary. Even that might not be enough.

The drama didn’t stop at the home run. The dugouts emptied twice before the seventh ended, Rangers reliever Sam Dyson, likely angry over Bautista’s legendary bat flip, barking at Edwin Encarnacion as he tried to calm the crowd down to trigger the first time, the right-hander barking at Troy Tulowitzki after a foul pop up for the third out to trigger the second.

The Rangers tried to rally in the eighth. They put two on with one out against Aaron Sanchez. Roberto Osuna took over, and struck out Josh Hamilton and Elvis Andrus.

In the ninth Rougned Odor lined out before Mike Napoli and Will Venable both struck out.

A mob scene followed on the field. These things do happen in Toronto sports.

The elation followed the fury.

It started with two outs and Rougned Odor on third in a 2-2 game in the top of the seventh. Russell Martin’s relay back to the mound, the kind that takes place hundreds of thousands of times each regular season, struck Shin-Soo Choo’s bat and deflected down the line.

Cleverly, Odor hustled home, even as home-plate umpire and crew chief Dale Scott signalled that the play was dead. Scott ordered Odor back to third, only to be awarded home again after a conference in the middle of the infield.

Fans then pelted the field with beer cans, rally towels, peanuts – basically anything not tied down. Manager John Gibbons, in his second discussion with Scott, managed to convince him to do a rules check with replay officials in New York. They consulted with both managers. The run counted.

The Blue Jays protested, their front office officials scrambling upstairs to interpret the rules and prepare their case.

The key rule interpretation appears to be at the end of: 54. Batter interferes with catcher’s throw back to pitcher.

“If the batter interferes with the catcher’s throw to retire a runner by stepping out of the batter’s box, interference shall be called on the batter under Official Baseball Rule 6.03(a)(3) [former OBR 6.06(c)].

“However, if the batter is standing in the batter’s box and he or his bat is stuck by the catcher’s throw back to the pitcher (or throw in attempting to retire a runner) and, in the umpire’s judgment, there is no intent on the part of the batter to interfere with the throw, the ball is alive and in play.”

That’s where things landed.

In the bottom of the frame, Martin, Kevin Pillar and Ryan Goins, bunting to advance the runners, each reached on errors. Ben Revere’s grounder to first led to a force at home for the first out, pinch-runner Dalton Pompey taking out catcher Chris Gimenez’s legs.

Josh Donaldson’s flair just over Odor’s head allowed Pillar to score although Revere was forced at second. Dyson took over from Cole Hamels. Bautista pummelled a 1-1, 97 mph heater over the wall in centre field.

Bedlam ensued. The Rogers Centre was the loudest it’s been since Joe Carter’s World Series winning homer in 1993.

The Blue Jays tied the game 2-2 in the sixth, when Hamels unwisely chose to pitch to Encarnacion, who smashed a 93 mph fastball laser into the second deck in left field.

Goins saved a run in the top half of the frame with more of his defensive wizardry, sliding to his right to pick an aggressive hop on Elvis Andrus’s chopper up the middle and relay to first.

That pushed Marcus Stroman, an integral part of Blue Jays’ future, through six strong innings.

He fell behind 1-0 in the first when Delino DeShields doubled on a biteless 1-2 slider to open the game, advanced to third on Shin-Soo Choo’s groundout and scored on Prince Fielder’s chopper to first, cleverly evading Martin’s tag.

Shin-Soo Choo added on another in the third, turning on an 0-1 heater and sending it over the wall in right, again silencing the crowd.

The Blue Jays struck back in the bottom of the inning, as Revere bounced an infield single off Hamels’ glove, moved to second on Donaldson’s groundout and scored on Bautista’s double. Hamels wanted no part of Encarnacion, who took two balls and then got two more intentionally. Colabello nearly cork-screwed himself into the ground swinging at the first pitch, and eventually grounded out to end the frame.

Things were tight from there until the madness set in, in one the wildest games in franchise history. And the Blue Jays are now going to the American League Championship Series, their wild adventure living on.