For more than two months, the Blue Jays — and especially their fans — forgot what the crushing solemnity of losing felt like.
Oh, they lost games during that epic 60-some game run down the stretch, but these were merely pebbles on the road to glory, shrugged off in a matter of moments. Then the new season began, the real season that they’d all been waiting 22 years to experience, and for two horrifying afternoons at Rogers Centre, nothing happened.
Well, that’s not quite true. Baseball happened.
First Yovano Gallardo and then Cole Hamels stifled the Big Blue Machine and the Rangers were just better enough to run back to Texas with two wins.