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Blue Jays Accomplish Huge Goal by Securing First AL East Title in 10 Years

Originally posted on Toronto Blue Jays on SI
By Brad Wakai | Last updated Sep 28, 2025 8:05 PM ET

The Toronto Blue Jays entered Sunday needing just a win in the regular season finale to secure their first AL East title since the 2015 campaign.

They did exactly that by beating the Tampa Bay Rays, 13-4, in a statement game to fend off the surging New York Yankees. Because the Blue Jays owned the crucial tiebreaker over their division rivals, all they needed to do was sweep the Rays to accomplish their longstanding goal of becoming AL East champions, and that's exactly what they did.

It certainly wasn't easy for Toronto, though. After putting together an incredible summer where they took a commanding lead while teams like the Yankees and Boston Red Sox began to falter, the Blue Jays' bats cooling off came at the worst time since others started to heat up.

And when New York kept winning to make a final charge at taking home another division title, it took until Game 162 for Toronto to officially get back to the mountain top.

TOP OF THE EAST! pic.twitter.com/TKelCzPtc3
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 28, 2025

Thankfully, Alejandro Kirk was up to the task on Sunday.

In the bottom of the first inning after seeing Tampa Bay take a 1-0 lead in the top of the frame, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did what superstars do and came through in the clutch to tie things up with an RBI single. But with the bases loaded and an opportunity to blow the game open, it was Kirk who delivered an epic moment for his team.

CAPTAIN KIRK.

FIRST CAREER SLAM.

NO BETTER TIME. pic.twitter.com/MR6zUxQPrf
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 28, 2025

The catcher smashed a grand slam 387 feet to left center field to give the Blue Jays a 5-1 lead. While things got a bit tight in the third inning when the Rays rallied back to cut their deficit to one run, Toronto's bats exploded in the latter stages of the game to bring home the division title.

With their main goal accomplished, they can look ahead to some more things they want to check off their wish list, with a deep playoff run now being one of them.

Blue Jays Get Much-Needed First-Round Bye

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With that divisional crown comes a first-round bye, as they get to skip past the Wild Card round and go directly to the American League Division Series and wait for the winner of the Red Sox and Yankees to set up a rivalry matchup in the next round. When that happens, more analysis will be done here at Toronto Blue Jays On SI, but in the meantime, this team should certainly take advantage of the rest they are going to get.

As Bo Bichette works his way back and Chris Bassitt and Jose Berrios deal with their issues that earned them a spot on the injured list, the others will be able to take some time off so they don't go down with injuries of their own.