Darwin Barney puts down a sacrifice bunt to move fellow Blue Jay Cliff Pennington to second during sixth inning on Friday, Sept. 25, 2015Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
If there were any cases of champagne, they were safely stowed out of sight from prying eyes within the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse.
Nor were there any signs of industrial-strength plastic sheeting, handy to hang over lockers to protect the players' fancy duds in the event that a champagne shower was to erupt.
With apologies to Prince, the Toronto Blue Jays might have been preparing to party like it was September of 2015 on Friday night, but they were keeping any production plans under close wraps.
For the first time in this dreamy season, the Blue Jays had an opportunity to clinch their first postseason berth in 22 years heading into their game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Rogers Centre.
A myriad of events had to transpire for that to occur, notwithstanding a Blue Jays victory over the visiting Rays.
And the Blue Jays did their part, launching three home runs on the night to power their way to a 5-3 comeback win over the Rays in the first of a three-game weekend series, Toronto's final regular-season showing at home.
The Blue Jays entered the day leading the New York Yankees by three games atop the American League East with 10 games left to play. With the Yankees dropping a 5-2 decision Friday night to the Chicago White Sox, Toronto's lead atop the division has now stretched to four games.
Although the division title and the assurance of a best-of-five game opening playoff series remains the apple of their eye, the Blue Jays came into the contest able to at least clinch one of the two wild-card berths up for grabs.
A win over Tampa Bay, combined with a Minnesota loss in Detroit and a Seattle win over the Los Angeles Angels would have punched Toronto's playoff ticket.
Minnesota played ball, dropping a 6-4 decision to the Detroit Tigers in Detroit.
Since the Angels-Mariners tilt in L.A. had a 10:05 p.m. Eastern start time, the Blue Jays would have to wait until the wee hours of Saturday morning to see if they were indeed playoff bound provided all the other criteria had fallen into place earlier.
By that time, Toronto manager John Gibbon would be comfortably outfitted in his Onesies, sawing logs.
"I'm going to be sleeping," Gibbons said. "Gotta mentally prepare for that next day's ball game."
Troy Tulowitzki, the injured Blue Jays shortstop whose daily workouts seem to indicate that a return to play is closer than many anticipated, said when the team clinches the players will be certain to mark the occasion.
"My experience is, with making it to the playoffs before, any time you get in, whether it be a wild card, it should be acknowledged," Tulowitzki said. "It doesn't happen all the time, especially with some guys in this locker room that have never been there before.
"It shouldn't be, like, 'Oh, this is easy to get here,' because it's not. So I think it definitely should be celebrated. How much, I'm not sure. I think that'll just depend on what happens."
Tulowitzki participated in baseball drills before the game and afterward said he is feeling almost sprightly recovering from a cracked left scapula.
"I felt great out there," Tulowitzki said. "Ground balls went well. I feel like I'm moving a lot better.
"From the beginning, I said swinging was going to be the last thing. I'm just going in there, light swings off the tee, nothing major yet. But definitely, I'm excited in the direction that I'm headed."
The Blue Jays certainly went into Friday's game like a team with the postseason in mind.
Russell Martin was behind the plate for the first time in weeks to catch the knuckleball of R.A. Dickey just because he is going to have to do it in the playoffs.
And Josh Donaldson, who has played in 151 of Toronto's 153 games this year, was given the night off defensively at third base, handling the designated-hitting duties to help him rest up for what lies ahead.
It marked just the seventh time this year Donaldson has played DH, and it agreed with him.
After Dickey laboured through the first inning, surrendering two Tampa Bay runs off two hits, a wild pitch and a hit-batsman, the Blue Jays fought their way back.
Cliff Pennington doubled in the second inning to score Kevin Pillar from third before Donaldson powered his 40th home run of the season off Tampa pitcher Jake Odorizzi in the third to draw Toronto even.
The Blue Jays struck for two more in the fourth, highlighted by Pillar's 12th home run of the season to send Toronto in front 4-2.
Jose Bautista then homered in the seventh for Toronto, his 37th and a useful insurance run.
Dickey recovered nicely after his rough first inning, retiring 18 of the final 19 batters he faced to earn the win, working seven innings to improve his record to 11-11.
For Dickey, 40, the win was the 100th of his career in his 100th game he has pitched for the Blue Jays since he was traded to the club for the start of the 2013 season.
"It's really, really special," Dickey said. "I think I had 28 wins before I was 35 [years old] and 72 after. And it's been a tough year for me, losing my Dad and things like.
"We need to celebrate this at home, in my 100th start for the Blue Jays. It's really poetic."