Edwin Encarnacion #10 of the Toronto Blue Jays hits a solo home run in the second inning during a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 28, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland.Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
Major League Baseball managers are a finicky lot, never satisfied.
Take Toronto Blue Jays field boss John Gibbons for example. He is happy that his outfit secured one of the American League wild-card playoff berths over the weekend, qualifying Toronto for post-season play for the first time in 22 years.
But the fact that the Blue Jays are entering the final week of the Major League Baseball season haven't yet secured that elusive first-place crown in the American League East remains a bit of a concern.
"We'd have liked to clinched that division by now, we haven't done that," Gibbons said. "We'd like to do that and we'd like to have the best record overall."
And Gibbons would also like to have shortstop Troy Tulowitzki back in the starting lineup, and also be able to help Mark Buehrle surpass the 200-innings pitched plateau.
A locked-down AL East crown would make both those events perhaps a bit easier to materialize for Gibbons – although all signs are pointing to a Tulowitzki return at some point this week regardless.
The Blue Jays started their final road trip of the regular season here on Monday night with the first game of a four-game series against the Baltimore Orioles.
And Toronto lowered its magic number to clinch the AL East to two games, coming back to earn a 4-3 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards, the Blue Jays fifth consecutive victory.
With the Boston Red Sox beating the New York Yankees 5-1, Toronto's lead in the A.L. East over New York is now five games. Toronto can now clinch the division title with a win over Baltimore Tuesday night and another Yankee loss.
Furthermore, the win improved Toronto's record to 91-65, now the best mark in the A.L., one game better than the Kansas City Royals.
In a game where Edwin Encarnacion homered for the 36th time this season, the Blue Jays scored twice in the eighth inning to knot things up after being down 3-1. And they won it in the top of the ninth when Justin Smoak, with runners at second and third, hit a soft ground ball to Chris Davis at first base.
Davis threw home to try to get Dalton Pompey, the lead Toronto runner, but his throw sailed past Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters and the winning run was across.
While a wild-card berth sets up the possibility of a one-and-done playoff experience, a division title ensures a best-of-five opening-round series, a much more palatable option, obviously, to the Blue Jays.
The Jays are in the driver's seat, not only to secure first place in East but to also finish with the best record overall in the AL, which would guarantee Toronto home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
So there is still an enticing carrot at the end of the stick for the Blue Jays to chase as the regular-season winds down, and that is also not such a bad thing in Gibbons's mind. Having something to shoot for will keep a team focused, playing strong for as long as possible toward the season's end and maintaining momentum into the playoffs.
It certainly did not hurt the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants last season. Both teams had to keep competing hard right to the end in order to secure wild card berths. And both teams wound up advancing into the World Series.
"You look at so many wild-card teams [that] have done well once they get to the playoffs," Gibbons said. "I think part of that is they just keep on playing until the end. They keep the nose to the stone. Maybe there's something to that."
Not that Gibbons wants to find out. He wants first place and he wants it now.
The Blue Jays continue to receive good news as far as Tulowitzki is concerned.
Out of the lineup since suffering a small fracture in his left shoulder blade on Sept. 12, the slick-fielding shortstop took batting practice for the first time on Monday.
Swinging the bat without pain is the final hurdle Tulowitski needs to clear before he can return to the lineup. And on Monday it was all thumbs-up from the shortstop.
"Hopefully my name's in the lineup sooner rather than later," Tulowitzki told reporters.
"He's going the right way, I know that," Gibbons said. "It would be nice if we could get him in here before this series is over. If we can't, we can't. But we might."
As for Buehrle, who will pitch in Friday's first game in Florida against the Tampa Bay Rays, he is 8 2/3 innings shy of the 200-innings pitched plateau.
It is a milestone Buehrle has achieved the past 14 seasons and would dearly love to again, but time is running out.
The game is Toronto's third-last of the year, and unless Buehrle pitches a complete game he will fall short.
Gibbons said he might consider allowing Buehrle to also start in Sunday's game if he is close to the 200-inning total, but only if Toronto has first place clinched and the game is relatively meaningless.