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As showdown with Yankees looms Blue Jays creating buzz not seen since 1993

As showdown with Yankees looms Blue Jays creating buzz not seen since 1993

There’s nothing Toronto loves more than a winner, and right now nobody is winning more than the Toronto Blue Jays. They open a three-game series against the New York Yankees on Friday night amid a buzz in the city that has not been seen since their back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993.

The Blue Jays have not been back to the playoffs since Joe Carter ended the '93 World Series on a walkoff home run. It's the longest active playoff drought in baseball, the longest in all of North American professional sports, in fact. But thanks to an 11-game winning streak the Blue Jays are a half game ahead of the Yankees and poised to end that 22-year playoff drought.

The Blue Jays are a juggernaut on offence and, more recently, have been getting great pitching and defence. Blue Jays starters have gone 17 consecutive games allowing three earned-runs or fewer, and their bullpen has been one of the best in the majors since the All-Star break. The Blue Jays added former Cy Young winner David Price at the trade deadline to top it off. Price was added along with All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to a team that already included MVP candidate Josh Donaldson, and sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. The Blue Jays are 14-1 since the trades, and 13-0 with Tulowitzki in the lineup.

Price’s third start with the Blue Jays is Friday night.

Their changing fortunes are not going unnoticed either. All three games against the Yankees are sold out, as was Thursday’s win over the Athletics. Thursday’s sellout was the seventh of the season, and it seems like there will be many more to come. It’s creating booming business on the secondary ticket market, as The Canadian Press notes.

“The average cost to see Toronto ace David Price start against the Yankees on Friday climbed to $91 over the past week. The average price is $103 for Saturday's game and $87 for Sunday.

Two weeks ago a ticket for Friday's game in the upper bowl at Rogers Centre overlooking the outfield cost $13. That same ticket has now climbed to $56, meaning just to get in to the stadium the price has more than quadrupled since the beginning of August. The lowest price isn't any cheaper on Saturday ($60) or Sunday ($58).

SeatGeek.com estimates that $1.4 million has been spent on the secondary market for the three Yankees games combined.”

Those are heady numbers considering we’re still only in mid-August. And if TV ratings are any indication the demand is only going to increase. Last weekend’s three-game series in the Bronx averaged 1.19 million viewers, then they set a ratings record during Wednesday night’s win over the Athletics.

Just two weeks ago all the talk in Toronto was about the successful Pan Am Games and the dream (or dread) of bidding for the Summer Olympics. That talk has seemed to quiet down as the Blue Jays began their winning streak. Call it jumping on the bandwagon if you have to, but this could be the summer of the Blue Jays in Toronto.

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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at denomme@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter.