So close they could touch it, feel it, roll it around in their mouth like a piece of hard candy.

Seventh game of the World Series, top of the ninth, two outs away close.

But what the Blue Jays are left with now is the taste of ashes.

Not for the first time, these players slumped along the railing or sat back deep in the shadow of their dugout, and watched the visiting team giddily celebrate a post-season win on their own home field.

This time was the worst time, though. Because never before had they been defeated and dispatched in the Fall Classic at the Rogers Centre or anywhere else. Never before had they come this near to the Tiffany-designed Commissioner’s Trophy and had it slip from their grasp.

If the ballpark patrons on Saturday night could have wrapped each and every Jay in

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