How have the Blue Jays fared in postseason series after two games?

After the first two games of the ALDS, the Toronto Blue Jays are in the driver’s seat. They have a commanding 2-0 lead in their series against the New York Yankees and have three opportunities to send them home for the season.

But as George Springer said postgame to reporters after the Blue Jays’ 13-7 win over the Yankees, the team isn’t trying to get too ahead of themselves, and they’re treating this like an 0-0 series. All they need is one more win in the next three games to advance to the ALCS.

For historical context, the Blue Jays are 1-1 in playoff series where they’ve led 2-0 out of the gate, they’re 3-1 when tied 1-1 after two games and 1-3 in playoff series when trailing after two games. In 12 career playoff series, the Blue Jays have jumped out to a 2-0 lead only three times.

Here’s how all those postseason series played out after the first two games.

1985 ALCS: 2-0 series lead over Kansas City Royals

40 years later, Blue Jays fans still feel the sting of the 1985 ALCS. This was the first year the league championship series expanded to a seven-game series from a best-of-five series the year prior. The Blue Jays not only jumped out to a commanding 2-0 lead against the Royals in that series, but they also had a 3-0 series lead.

But George Brett came alive in games four through seven of the series and helped Kansas City defy all odds and storm back to win the next four games and advance to the World Series.

1989 ALCS: 0-2 series deficit against Oakland A’s

Sometimes, teams can take solace in the fact that they got steamrolled by undoubtedly the biggest juggernaut in the game, and that was the case for the 1989 Blue Jays when they faced the Oakland A’s in the ALCS. The Blue Jays dropped the first two games of the series, but fought back to win Game 3 by a score of 7-3, only to drop the next two games in Oakland and were bounced from the ALCS.

This time, it was Rickey Henderson who tormented the Blue Jays, who was 6 for 15 in the series, stealing eight bases against Blue Jays hitters in that series. The A’s swept the San Francisco Giants in the World Series 4-0.

1991 ALCS: 1-1 series split against Minnesota Twins

A few years later, the Blue Jays returned to the playoffs hungrier than ever, but once again, they ran into the eventual World Series champs in the American League Championship Series. The Blue Jays had no answer for Minnesota Twins ace Jack Morris, who won both of his starts against Toronto.

In an interesting twist of fate, the Blue Jays signed Jack Morris to a two-year contract, and he won three consecutive World Series rings: one with the Twins in 1991 and a pair with the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.

1992 ALCS: 1-1 series split against Oakland A’s

In this series, the Blue Jays finally shed their moniker as the “Blow Jays”. They were 0-3 in their previous playoff series dating back to 1985, but split the first two games of the 1992 ALCS against the Athletics. Game 4 was the turning point of the series, as Oakland was three outs away from evening up the series at 2-2.

With one swing of the bat by Roberto Alomar, he tied the game at 6-6 in the ninth inning to force the game into extra innings. Pat Borders hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly and Toronto took Game 4 and won the series 4-2.

1992 World Series: 1-1 series split against Atlanta Braves

After coming off the high of sinking the Oakland A’s in the ALCS, the Blue Jays kept their foot on the gas pedal against MLB’s best team during the 1992 regular season: the Atlanta Braves. The Blue Jays dropped Game 1 by a score of 3-1, but Game 2 belonged to “the trenches,” a group of Blue Jays’ ragtag bench players who single-handedly stole a World Series win.

A walk by Derek Bell set up a pinch-hit two-run home run by Ed Sprague off Braves closer Jeff Reardon. Sprague said, “Someone once told me that when you come off the bench, you gotta be ready to swing. So I said screw it, I’m not going to take the first pitch.”

Had Sprague not delivered in that clutch situation, the Blue Jays would face an 0-2 deficit in the World Series coming back to Toronto, handing the ball to Juan Guzman in Game 3.

1993 ALCS: 2-0 series lead over Chicago White Sox

With the 1993 ALCS ending in a 4-2 victory for the Blue Jays, it certainly felt a lot closer than it should have. On the backs of solid starts from Juan Guzman in Game 1 and Dave Stewart in Game 2 of the ALCS, the Blue Jays had a commanding 2-0 lead over the White Sox.

The Blue Jays dropped the next two games at home before winning the next two contests on the road in Chicago to punch their ticket to their second consecutive World Series.

1993 World Series: 1-1 series split against Philadelphia Phillies

Before things got really hairy in Game 4 of the World Series, which still stands as one of the wildest postseason games in MLB history, the Blue Jays and Phillies traded blows to make it an even 1-1 series after the first two games.

The Blue Jays enjoyed an 8-5 victory in Game 1 thanks to a 3 for 5 performance by leadoff hitter Devon White. The Phillies jumped out to a commanding 5-0 lead by putting up a five-spot against Dave Stewart in the third inning, and the Phillies never looked back, winning Game 2 by a score of 6-4.

Aside from Curt Schilling’s masterful complete-game shutout performance in Game 5, the 1993 World Series was a starting pitcher’s worst nightmare.

2015 ALDS: 0-2 series deficit against Texas Rangers

The 2015 Blue Jays quickly sank into a 0-2 hole against the Texas Rangers in the ALDS with everything trending in the wrong direction. The series was heading on the road to Texas and the Blue Jays had just lost Game 2 heartbreakingly in extra innings.

But the rest was history as the Blue Jays won three consecutive elimination games (two on the road in Texas) thanks to a wild and raucous Game 5 of the American League Division Series. The Blue Jays became just the third team in MLB history to lose the first two games of the ALDS at home and come back to win the series.

2015 ALCS: 0-2 series deficit against the Kansas City Royals

Riding high from their 3-2 series win over the Rangers in the ALDS, the 2015 Blue Jays had their sights set on the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. But before they knew it, the Blue Jays trailed 0-2 in the series, losing Game 2 brutally after carrying a 3-0 lead into the seventh inning.

Once the series returned to Toronto, the Blue Jays rekindled some of their regular-season magic by taking two of three games in Toronto, but were eliminated in Game 6 in Kansas City after loading the bases in the ninth inning after having the tying run on third base with nobody out and failing to bring Dalton Pompey home from third base.

2016 ALDS: 2-0 series lead over Texas Rangers

Although there was a dramatic back-and-forth in the 2015 ALDS, the next year’s rematch between the Blue Jays and Rangers wasn’t even a fair contest. The Blue Jays thumped the Rangers 10-1 in Game 1 and 5-3 in Game 2 in Texas before heading back home for Game 3.

The “Donaldson Dash” provided a walk-off win for the Blue Jays in extra innings and propelled Toronto to their second consecutive American League Championship Series.

2016 ALCS: 0-2 series deficit against the Cleveland Guardians

If you were hoping to see an exchange of blows between heavyweight lineups in the 2016 ALCS, you were sorely mistaken. This was a matchup dictated purely on pitching, as the Blue Jays had few answers for the Guardians’ starting rotation and bullpen.

The Guardians took a 3-0 series lead and outscored the Blue Jays 6-3 over the first three games of the series before Toronto stole a victory in Game 4 by winning 5-1 and living to fight one more day. The Blue Jays avoided the series sweep, but lost handily 4-1 in the ALCS.