TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays made a little bit of history on Wednesday.
More important, they moved into first place in the American League East by a half game over the New York Yankees.
They did the trick with a 10- 3 win over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday that extended their winning streak to 10 games.
They also had an 11-game winning streak this season June 2-14.
They are the first American League team since the 1977 Kansas City Royals to have two winning streaks of 10 or more games in the same season. That was the Blue Jays’ first year of existence.
The National League Atlanta Braves did it in 2013 with 10-game and 14-game winning streaks.
The Blue Jays are 18-6 since the All-Star break and after completing their three-game series with Oakland on Thursday afternoon will play the Yankees in a three-game series starting Friday. The Blue Jays swept New York in a three-game series at Yankee Stadium last weekend.
Manager John Gibbons was asked if recent events seem surreal to him.
“Not really,” he said. “We’ve had some streaks in the past, we just haven’t had two of them. We’ve had some long ones here the last couple of years — 11 games I think twice, earlier this year and last year and even the year before we had a nice little streak and came back and got the team back to .500 then, you know we uhh….”
He made sort of a snapping sound, indicating that when October came around they were on the outside looking in as they have since 1993 when they won their second straight World Series championship.
“That’s hard to do,” Gibbons said of the streaks. “It’s really hard to win big league baseball games period, you know. But to win that many in a row everything’s got to go your way and that’s what’s been happening.
“There’s no question there’s a different feeling in that room, very confident. But it’s a very professional team in there, guys are really focused now.”
Infielder/outfielder Chris Colabello, whose three-run homer in the first inning, got things going on Wednesday, said the team understands the reality.
“I don’t think being in first place on August whatever is it — 10th, 11th, 12th, something like that. … I mean it’s great, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s the end goal. Obviously I think everybody in this clubhouse is aware we want to be in first place in when the last pitch is thrown in (game) 162. That’s when it’s important.
“It’s a matter of going out there and going about our business the same way. I don’t think anything’s going to change, obviously. Nice to be on a good little stretch here but it’s just a matter of coming to the park every day and taking care of business, not worrying about what anybody else is doing.”