Jose Bautista follows through on his tenth inning home run against the Yankees on August 7, 2015.Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
Like a kid on Christmas morning, Ryan Goins was carefully opening the large cardboard box that contained his new big-boy toy inside the visiting team's clubhouse here at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.
It was a portable e-scooter and the Toronto Blue Jays' second baseman could barely contain his excitement as he tried to figure out how to hook up the contraption to get it charged.
Kevin Pillar, the team's centre fielder, didn't bother waiting for any of that technical stuff. Grabbing the small-wheeled gadget, Pillar proceeded to use foot power to propel his way in and around the clubhouse clutter like he was on a skateboard.
It was still several hours before the first game of the biggest series of the year and the Blue Jays were trying their best to play it cool.
They knew that the New York Yankees would be bringing all the heat that would matter.
It was showdown time between the two top teams in the American League East, the first game of a three-game weekend set in New York on baseball's biggest stage.
And while the contest featured the two top offences in baseball, it was the pitching that dominated this affair, with the Blue Jays squeezing out a 2-1 victory in 10 innings.
Jose Bautista proved to be the hero for Toronto, swatting his 25th home run of the year off New York reliever Branden Pinder over the left-field wall to break a 1-1 tie in the top of the 10th.
Rookie reliever Roberto Osuna then came on to retire the Yankees in order in the bottom of the frame to record his ninth save of the season.
With the victory, the surging Blue Jays (59-52) won their sixth straight game and trimmed New York's lead atop the AL East to just 3 1/2 games.
Several hours before the first pitch, the Blue Jays were trying their best to maintain a calm demeanour ahead of the storm, with most of the players insisting it was just another game, another series, on the long road to the end of the regular season.
After this series, the Blue Jays still have 12 more games left against the Yankees – still plenty of time to make up ground.
David Price is Toronto's new pitching ace, one of five players scooped up by general manager Alex Anthopoulos just before the July 31 trade deadline, transforming the roster.
He said while the atmosphere within the Toronto clubhouse is loose, with players enjoying one another's company, it should not be construed as a sign of weakness that they are not serious about the task at hand.
And that task is overtaking New York for first place.
"We're a very confident group," Price said. "I've noticed that since I've been here.
"This group does not lack confidence and that's what you have to get to where you want to be."
Price has been through the playoff wars in the past and even played in a World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays. He can sense the excitement that is in the air with the Blue Jays breathing down the Yankees' collective necks.
"I mean it's big, it's absolutely big," Price said of this weekend's showdown. "This is the team that is in front of us in the standing right now. Obviously, if we win tonight that means that they lose and that's a full game that you can gain back in the standing."
The Blue Jays were brimming with confidence heading into New York, coming in after having won eight of 10 games in a homestand to cut into the New York lead atop the AL East. And the Yankees have been no slouches either, winning 12 of their past 17 heading into the weekend set.
It was Josh Donaldson who provided the Blue Jays with a jolt in the first inning, stroking his career-high 30th home run off New York starter Nathan Eovaldi to give his team an early lift.
Eovaldi was solid, giving up just one run off six hits over 6 1/3 innings of work while being denied the opportunity to win his 12th game.
His counterpart on the Blue Jays, knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, pitched seven strong, allowing just one run off six hits.
That run would come in the second inning on Mark Teixeira's 30th home run of the year that just cleared the left-field wall.
It was originally ruled that Teixeira's hit was a double. But that call was overturned on appeal after it was determined that fan interference caused the ball to remain in play when otherwise it would have cleared the wall.
The Blue Jays squandered a good opportunity to take a lead in the seventh, when they chased Eovaldi and loaded the bases with two out for Donaldson.
But there would be no heroics on this occasion for Donaldson, who grounded out to second.