The Toronto Blue Jays are headed back to the American League Championship Series, knocking out the Texas Rangers for the second straight season on a mad dash, and a dash of sweet, sweet comeuppance.

Here's how it all went down...

Edwin Encarnacion came up huge. Again.

Four days after Encarnacion exposed Buck Showalter's historically bad managerial decision with a titanic walk-off blast, The Parrot Walker was at it again. In his first at-bat Sunday night, Encarnacion crushed a hanging slider from Colby Lewis into the second deck in left-center, giving the Jays an early 2-1 lead.

In his second time up, he smoked a single up the middle, cashing Josh Donaldson to put Toronto ahead 5-2 in the third. Encarnacion's Sunday night slugfest continued an assault on the league that's intensified as the stakes have grown. The 33-year-old slugger batted .263/.357/.529, tying a career high with 42 homers and leading the league with 127 runs batted in (if you're into that kind of thing). Edwing's first-inning shot marked the first time in the Blue Jays' 40-year history that a player had hit three home runs in the team's first four playoff games.

That Encarnacion would blossom into one of the most devastating power hitters in the league is a borderline miracle. Sportsnet's Stephen Brunt's 2014 feature details the long and winding road Encarnacion took to get here. In 2009, the Jays traded Scott Rolen to Cincinnati, taking Encarnacion back only at the Reds' insistence, and only as a straight salary dump. As Alex Anthopoulos, Toronto's assistant general manager at the time of the trade, told Brunt: "Candidly, we did not want him to be part of the deal."

From there, the Jays would send Encarnacion to the minors during the 2010 season, place him on waivers at season's end, watch him get claimed by the A's, re-sign him a month later when Oakland let him go, and watch him make so many errors at third base that he earned the mocking nickname "E5." It took offseason instruction from Robinson Cano's hitting consultant Luis Mercedes, and a call for Encarnacion to eliminate the leg-kick in his swing and to keep two hands on the bat, for the power outburst now five years running to get started.

Since then, we've gained a hitter who, according to MLB.com research, crushes baseballs with the barrel of the bat more than almost anyone else in baseball. One who, according to the analysis site TruMedia, saw his OPS against right-handed pitchers jumped 160 points from his 2009-2011 levels to what he's accomplished in the past five seasons. And one who, according to TruMedia, has drastically improved his ability to lay off bad pitches over the past five seasons

EDWIN ENCARNACION CHASE RATES:

2009-2011 Chase% vs RHP=27.3% (vs LHP=21.7%)
2012-2016 Chase% vs RHP=22.7% (vs LHP=20.0%)

The decisive game of this series would get decided on other, much weirder events. But with Josh Donaldson's late-season hip injury curtailing his power, even the defending AL MVP can't claim to be the Jays' scariest threat. That honor belongs to Encarnacion, fixer of swings, transporter of birds, beater of worlds.

Edwin Encarnacion celebrates with teammates after hitting a two-run home run against the Rangers during game three. USATSI

The Jays' bullpen continued to defy the odds.

With a power-packed lineup, an excellent team defense, and arguably the deepest starting rotation in franchise history, the Jays came into this year's playoffs as one of the dangerous wild-card teams the game had seen in the two decades since the playoffs expanded.

The team's biggest concern, by far, was its bullpen. Joaquin Benoit's season-ending injury, combined with Jason Grilli's late-season struggles and Brett Cecil's season-long inconsistency, raised questions about the bridge to closer Roberto Osuna. When Osuna left Tuesday's wild-card game with an arm injury, you had to wonder if the Jays could survive a close game in the playoffs, one that didn't see them pummel an opposing pitching staff into submission.

In the sixth inning of Sunday's game, it looked like that dire scenario might come to fruition. Rookie Joe Biagini, a strong performer throughout most of the season, and a pivotal part of the team's chances given his role as Benoit's de facto replacement, served up a go-ahead, two-run double by the Rangers' Mitch Moreland. Though Biagini would go on to record four outs and allow only that Moreland double, that moment appeared destined to let the Rangers back in the series, particularly given the Rangers' superior skill and depth in the pen.

Instead, Toronto's relievers rallied. Grilli replaced Biagini to start the eighth, and promptly rang up two outs on four pitches. Then, playing matchups (and a bit of a hunch), Jays manager John Gibbons tapped Cecil to face Rougned Odor, the slugging second baseman who'd already homered earlier in the game and had become Toronto's nemesis for both baseball and non-baseball reasons. Rather than challenge Odor with hard stuff, Cecil spun four straight curveballs, inducing an inning-ending popout.

The kicker was still to come. Coming into the ALCS, few knew if Osuna would even be able to pitch, let alone do so effectively. In Game 2, Osuna surprised everyone by not only pitching but facing six batters, setting down five of them en route to the save. In Game 3, Osuna went one better, plowing through six straight Rangers hitters in two perfect innings of relief, needing just 22 pitches to get it done.

All told, the pen fired 4 2/3 innings, striking out four and allowing just that lone double. If Toronto's relief inning can perform comparably well the rest of the way, the Jays would rival the Cubs as the best team left in this postseason.

Josh Donaldson ran through a stop sign, and it all ended perfectly.

A Jonathan Lucroy passed ball allowed Troy Tulowitzki to scamper home with the tying run in the sixth. The game might have ended very differently if not for that play, though. Some half-hearted running by Tulo on a Melvin Upton Jr. double prompted third-base coach Luis Rivera to throw up a stop sign, an unfortunate turn of events given a left-field corner bobble by Carlos Gomez that might've otherwise allowed the tying run to score, a Darwin Barney foulout, and a Keone Kela-Ezequiel Carrera matchup that might've ended in the Rangers' favor.

Fast-forward to the bottom of the 10th. The Jays put runners on first and second with one out, bringing Russell Martin to the plate. Matt Bush, who'd given up just one hit in 2 ⅓ innings of work, then got Martin to roll over on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. Elvis Andrus fired to second for the force, setting up Odor to turn the potential inning-ending double play. Instead, Odor threw wide of the bag. When Moreland couldn't pick the wild throw, Donaldson ran through another Rivera stop sign, bolting for home. Moreland's throw came in late, and just like that, the Jays had swept the Rangers out of the playoffs, doing so in historic fashion.

After the game, much was made of Odor being the guy who committed the error that ended the Rangers' season. In baseball, narratives are rarely that clear-cut. Moreland could have fielded Odor's throw more cleanly, or reacted quicker to Donaldson's dash. Even if we want to cite Odor's May punch of Bautista as the setup for justice being served in October, we should note that Bautista appeared set to deck Odor first and simply lost the fight because Odor was quicker. Still, the glorification of the fight by select members of the Rangers' media corps and fan base was weak, and Jays fans had every right to react with a little extra glee when Odor helped propel their team to the next round.

As our neighbors to the north celebrate both Thanksgiving and a big win on Monday, they've earned a little serenade.