Clubhouse reaction as the Orioles' season comes to an end

TORONTO - The Orioles' season ended in heartbreaking fashion for players and fans alike tonight. Edwin Encarnacion's first-pitch, three-run homer was a walk-off winner 5-2 for Toronto. A sellout crowd of 49.934 cheered on as Toronto now advances to meet Texas in the American League Division Series.

After 89 wins, a tie for second in the AL East and their third playoff appearance in three years, the Orioles' season comes to screeching halt at Rogers Centre.

On a night when the Orioles and manager Buck Showalter chose not to use Zach Britton in a tie game, Ubaldo Jimenez came on to pitch with one out and the bases empty in the bottom of the 11th. He was the seventh O's pitcher of the night.

But five pitches later, it was over. The Blue Jays produced a single, single and the walk-off home run.

"I was trying to do the best I could," Jimenez said of coming in out of the bullpen. "Was trying to throw strikes and get the sinker down, something I didn't do. Was trying to get a sinker down and get a double play. But it didn't do anything. It stayed up."

Catcher Matt Wieters said it was a tough ending for his team and for Jimenez who had pitched so well late in the year.

"He threw (five) pitches," Wieters said. "He's one of the main reason that we were in, the way he was throwing the ball in the second half. Up until Edwin hit it, I saw that being a double play ball and us getting back in the dugout and winning that game.

"Any way your season ends, if it's not with a World Series ring on the end of it, it's going to hurt. It was a tough game. Both teams battled, it was a hard-fought game that really could have gone any way. They were just able to have the last swing and Edwin put a good swing on it."

The Orioles were held to just four hits in the game. One was Mark Trumbo's two-run homer to left in the fourth that gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead. But Toronto tied it in the fifth and the score stayed that way until the swing that ended it. The Orioles had no hits in their last 16 at-bats.

Center fielder Adam Jones reflected on the end of another year.

"Hell of a season," Jones said. "I couldn't be more proud of everyone in here. Disappointed that we aren't going to Texas but to say that I'm not extremely happy that we played a hell of a season, got ourselves in here. We are one of the last teams in baseball while everyone else is at home. Now we are going home, but it says a lot about the character of this team, in this clubhouse, the tenacity we have from guy to guy. Overall, I think we played a hell of a game. So did they ... I'm happy with everyone in this clubhouse that's donning black and orange."

The game was marred by an incident in the bottom of the seventh when Hyun Soo Kim made a catch for third out as a beer bottle was sailing toward him from the stands. Needless to say, that incident angered the Orioles and they were still angry about it after the game.

"First and foremost that's about as pathetic as it gets between the lines," Jones said. "You don't do that. I don't care how passionate you are. Yell, cus, scream, we suck. We are sacks of (poop). We get it we are the opponent, we completely understand. But to throw something at a player? That's as pathetic as it gets. I hope they find the guy and I hope they press charges because he's not looking, you could hit him in the back of the head. You never know what could happen. That's a full beer that's being thrown. That's just not part of the sport."

Wieters added this: "It's a shame that some idiot would decide to do that. There is no point in having a guy like that in the stands. I hope some sort of charges are pressed against that guy because that was close to doing some damage."

Here is Showalter's take on that incident: "Disappointing. People have a different way of handling their emotions. I don't like it. I'm sure the Toronto Blue Jays don't like it. It's tough when you have that many people in the ballpark and one person does something that reflects poorly on all of them. It can happen at any ballpark. I don't like anything that puts our guys in harm's way, just like Gibby (Toronto manager John Gibbons) wouldn't at our place.

"It seemed like it would be pretty easy to identify who it was. It came out of the first deck there. Just wanted to feel comfortable they were going to identify it first and get them out of there. So I just feel fortunate nobody got hurt."