The Toronto Blue Jays finished off their 2017 year well shy of any hopes for the playoffs, but on a winning note.

Friday, September 8th saw them welcome the Detroit Tigers to Rogers Center for a three game series. That concluded with the visitors nabbing the first 5-4, before the home team stepped up and posted scores of 5-4 and 8-2. Following that it was the Baltimore Orioles paying a visit. The Jays managed to take that series as well, though they left the broom in the corner, with the scoreboard reading 4-3 and 3-2 for Toronto and 2-1 for the Orioles.

Then it was time for a brief road-trip, as they headed out to face the Minnesota Twins. The series was split over the four games, with Minnesota taking the first 3-2, then Toronto showing their hand and winning 4-3 and 7-2, before the Twins returned with a hammer to end things off 13-7. The Jays returned home to take a break the next day before once again hitting the diamond, this time across from the Kansas City Royals. Starting off with a 5-2 victory they soon fell behind 15-5 and 1-0.

The Yankees next came in from New York. The boys in blue gave a strong performance for their final home-stand of the year, and while they once again couldn't sweep the series they put quite a few points on the board. Game one saw a decisive 8-1 victory for the Jays, followed by a 5-1 loss, and then redeemed by a 9-5 win to close things out. Toronto then hit the road for the last time of the season, and started with the Boston Red Sox. 6-4 and 9-4 wins preceded a 10-7 loss for the Jays.

Finally, it was off to New York to take on the Yankees one last time. The series started with promise on a 4-0 shutout then went south, literally, as the home team took the second game 2-1. However, the year ended on a victorious note for the Blue Jays, with a 2-1 win on October 1st.

The numbers spun to a stop on their 2017 season at a 76-86 record, and when the dust settled, they had managed to claw their way out of last place, into fourth, in the American League East.

It's probably a year that they'd much rather forget ever happened. They bit the dust 1-9 in one of the worst starts in franchise history and never really managed to salvage things, even though they came within one game of cracking .500 several times. They were plagued by injuries that saw many of their key players sit on the bench at one time or another.  Among those were Aaron Sanchez's blister, J.A Happ's elbow, Josh Donaldson's calf, and Troy Tulowitzki's hamstring and ankle. They saw what appeared to be the decline of star Jose Bautista, and gave him a farewell, while Donaldson recovered from his injury to prove invaluable to the team.

Despite the record, however, some outstanding and memorable plays were seen, including Chris Coghlan's somersault to the plate for the score against the St. Louis Cardinals, and the successful hidden ball trick pulled by Ryan Goins.

While just about everything in the club seems to need repairs, the management apparently remains confident that they can address and resolve the issues, and be a contender in the 2018 season.