With a grin that couldn’t be wiped off and goggles resting on his forehead, Yoenis Cespedes made a promise during the Mets’ pennant-clinching celebration on Wednesday night.

The Blue Jays aren’t short on star power, from David Price to Jose Bautista to Troy Tulowitzki. That perhaps obscures what’s happening at the back of the bullpen, where 20-year-old Roberto Osuna has nailed down the ninth inning like no one his age ever has.

The applause, thunderous and emotional, began the instant Blue Jays manager John Gibbons stepped from his dugout and headed toward the mound. He walked slowly, giving the thing time to build and to wash over his pitcher and his team. It was warm and sweet and utterly unforgettable.

The American League Championship Series is headed back to Kansas City after the Blue Jays staved off elimination and forced Game 6 with yet another victory when their backs were against the wall. Right-hander Marco Estrada faced one batter over the minimum through the first seven innings and later departed in the eighth en route to Toronto’s 7-1 victory over the Royals in Game 5 on Wednesday at Rogers Centre.

Jose Bautista will be remembered long after this October for his famous bat flip, one frozen in time through iconic still images and still running on loop on social-media video clips. On Wednesday, the Blue Jays slugger stopped his swing and set down his bat, and it proved nearly as critical to his team’s postseason hopes.

Ned Yost isn’t about to fall into the trap a second time. When he managed the Milwaukee Brewers, Yost cared about what people said and writers wrote. He wanted to please all the people all the time. It’s not going to happen again. Now he gets it.

That hard work during the final week of the regular season to grab the American League’s best record and home-field advantage throughout the postseason perhaps is about to pay off for the Royals.

This is why the Blue Jays made the David Price deal this summer. Toronto had the big stage, the critical moments, in mind. Now, as the Blue Jays find themselves in an all-too familiar situation, with their backs against the wall in Game 6 of the ALCS, Price will take the hill.

On a day the Royals’ bats went missing, their defense still showed up, albeit under the radar in a 7-1 Game 5 loss to the Blue Jays in Wednesday’s American League Championship Series. First baseman Eric Hosmer took top honors with an incredible grab for the first out of the second inning.

Toronto pushed four runs across in the sixth inning of Game 5, chasing Edinson Volquez from the contest and running to a 5-0 lead with a chance to trim Kansas City’s edge in the ALCS to 3-2.

Daniel Murphy homered again, Jacob deGrom won again and the Mets moved to within one victory of the National League pennant as they defeated the Cubs, 5-2, in Game 3 of the NL Championship Series.

There’s no mincing words: After their 5-2 loss in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, the Cubs have a tough road ahead.

The Mets will go for a National League Championship Series sweep in Game 4 tonight, with 24-year-old lefty Steven Matz opposing the Cubs’ Jason Hammel.

If the Cubs need inspiration to rally from a three-games-to-none deficit in the National League Championship Series against the Mets, they can look to Theo Epstein, who knows it can be done.

With a third-inning solo shot into the center-field bleachers in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Tuesday against the Cubs, Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy joined Carlos Beltran as the only players in postseason history to go deep in five consecutive games. Beltran did so with the Astros in 2004. The Mets won, 5-2, to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven NLCS.

By the end of today, the 2015 World Series matchup could be set with two potential series-clinching contests on tap.

Hump day could be clinch day on the postseason calendar, if the Royals and Mets have their way today.