TORONTO — Postseason baseball had been absent from Canada for 22 years until this remarkable season, but the two decades’ worth of controversy, excitement and drama that fans had missed were synthesized into one rollicking and, at times, menacing inning that will be remembered for years to come.

The celebration continued into the early morning, hours after what may come to be known forever as the Inning.

After the dust had settled, and the bottles and trash thrown by playoff-starved fans at Rogers Centre had been cleared, and a protest had been filed, and Jose Bautista had hit a three-run homer for the ages, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 6-3, on Wednesday to win Game 5 of their American League division series. The Blue Jays advanced to the league championship series for the first time since 1993, when they won the World Series.

Oh, and the benches emptied twice, which explains why the seventh inning lasted 53 minutes.

“A lot of veteran players in the dugout at the time said it,” Blue Jays pitcher R. A. Dickey said. “None of us had ever seen anything like it — not in the minors, not in winter ball, not anywhere. It was incredible.”