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During the final week of the baseball season, the Toronto Blue Jays have veered into Donald Rumsfeld territory.

They've made correct decisions, incorrect decisions, correct-incorrect decisions and as yet unknown number of incorrect-correct decisions. Get your highlighter out. We're entering the fog of playoff war.

Giving all the regulars the second leg of Wednesday's double-header off after they'd won the division in the first – correct.

Giving every single one of them the next day off as well – incorrect. They were all a weekend away from three successive days off. How badly do these men need their rest?

With the exception of Jonathan Papelbon, we've rightly turned away from the old-timey tyranny of 'play-hard-on-every-out-whether-it-matters-or-not' philosophy.

However, the pendulum has begun swinging a little too hard in the other direction. These are elite performers. They know how and when to protect their bodies. Standing in the outfield and going to bat three times in the course of an afternoon – even if they're hung over – is not going to drain them of their vital essence. You and I have done it. They can, too.

Considering that the Jays gave back their best-in-the-league record on the final day of the season, that decision looks profligate.

Scratching David Price from his last start of the year? Yet to be determined. If he's sharp in Game 1 of the American League Division Series – correct. If he isn't – it's a nice idea that blew up on you, and therefore incorrect-correct.

Welcome to the unfair logic of playoff baseball. A lot of things that are textbook good choices will be revealed as real-life bad ones when they don't work out.

They may have been the smart thing to do, but they weren't the right thing to do – ipso facto. This is why we don't erect statues of visionary military tacticians who lost wars.

Conversely, every dumb thing the Jays do from now on will, in the end, not have been dumb if they win. Winning makes everybody a genius. Even the idiots.

You can try this at home with a simple test: Does home-field advantage matter in the baseball playoffs?

I don't know what you said, and it doesn't matter. You're wrong and you're right. For now.

Last year, home teams went 1-8 in nine postseason rounds. So it doesn't.

In 2009, home teams went 6-1. So it does.

Over the past decade, the home team has gone 41-42. So it's a statistical wash.

The bottom line on home field: If you have it and you win, it works. If you don't and you win, it doesn't. Because you're not playing a statistically average series. You're playing a very specific, chaotic one.

Should you be feeling a little worried today that the Jays lost four of their past five, lost home-field 'advantage' and lost the right to play a wild-card entrant who'd already burned their ace?

I'll tell you in a week, when they've either won or lost their first-round series against Texas.

That's how every decision works from now on – its wisdom is a mystery … until it isn't.

On Sunday, Toronto started Mark Buehrle on one day's rest in an attempt to push him to 200 innings pitched for the 15th consecutive year. Buehrle is beloved in the clubhouse, making the team's gesture of respect not just cordial, but cunning.

Then it got all no-good-deed-goes-unpunished. Buehrle allowed eight runs in two-thirds of an inning. It wasn't all his fault. Toronto committed two errors behind him. But by the end, he looked like he was throwing batting practice.

Buehrle has made nearly 500 starts. He'd never before given up six or more runs while working for less than an inning.

So what was likely the last outing of his career is arguably his worst. It was the wrong thing done for the right reasons, but you could see the disaster coming a long way off. Call this one correct-incorrect.

This is the sort of choice you now need to eliminate.

The Jays can no longer afford to be sporting – letting a pitcher stay in one batter too long because you don't want to hurt his confidence; or giving a guy a shot at postseason glory when you're pretty sure he's not up to it.

Baseball puts a high value on chivalry, but it's a luxury born of the regular season and its interminable length. Those mistakes even out.

In the postseason, every minor ripple can become a campaign-ending, reputation-destroying tidal wave. Ask Bill Buckner. This is the time to be ruthless.

The Jays will make errors – physical and tactical – in the coming week(s). It's an inevitability.

We'll spend a great deal of time obsessing over what the manager does or does not do, because that's easy.

Few of us have the bonafides to second-guess the players, and most would not assume to do so. All of us imagine we could handle the pitching staff under in-game pressure. We're wrong, but we still think that.

However it turns out, you hope it comes down to a Joe Carter-esque moment of brilliance rather than a Buckner-esque miscue.

But I suspect it comes down to plays and decisions that only seem smart in retrospect – the incorrect-correct.

When the San Francisco Giants pitched their now-and-future ace, Madison Bumgarner, on two days rest in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, that was an iffy decision. Sure, you want to win a championship. Also, you do not want to break or humiliate a cornerstone of your organization.

Had it gone wrong, it would be remembered as a Buehrle-esque pratfall at the most critical moment. Instead, Bumgarner pitched five, remarkable shutout innings.

So a choice that could have been panicky and foolish became inspired and brave. Have the Jays made that sort of decision yet, or can they, or should they? Maybe. We'll know when it's over.

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