Michael Saunders grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, which is less than 100 miles from Seattle, home of the Mariners. Naturally, he rooted for the Blue Jays, who were 2,700 miles and three time zones away in Toronto.

"For me and my family, it was all Blue Jays, and for the friends I grew up with going to school, it was all Blue Jays too," the Toronto outfielder said. "And obviously, the excitement during those two World Series was through the roof."

Those two World Series were in 1992 and 1993, and the Blue Jays won each -- the first against Atlanta on Dave Winfield's Game 6 11th-inning double, and the second against Philadelphia on Joe Carter's Game 6 walk-off/dance-off home run. Their popularity went not only through the roof but also through the stratosphere. The Blue Jays led the league in attendance six years in a row, including 1993, when they averaged 50,000 fans per game.

And then the team went into a sudden and surprising decline. After 11 consecutive winning seasons and almost constant contention, the Blue Jays began piling up losing seasons in 1994 and went 21 years without reaching a single postseason. Average attendance plummeted to as low as 19,173 by 2010. From 2008 to '13, they finished no higher than fourth in their division.

"I've been here four years, and winning wasn't something that was synonymous with the Blue Jays," Toronto center fielder Kevin Pillar said. "We were kind of the doormat of the AL East."

And then things changed. After finishing last in 2013 and third in 2014, the Blue Jays won the division last year. This year, after beating Baltimore in the wild-card game and Texas in an AL Division Series, they will be playing for the AL pennant against Cleveland.

They're also massively popular again, leading the league in attendance with an average of close to 42,000 per game. And that isn't counting the many fans who filled the stadium in Seattle for a series against the Mariners in September. "It's almost like a West Coast Canadian holiday," Saunders said of the Blue Jays crowds in Seattle.

As when Hall of Fame general manager Pat Gillick's Blue Jays added Roberto Alomar in 1991, Jack Morris in 1992 and Paul Molitor in 1993, acquiring new players has been a big factor in Toronto's resurgence. As Pillar said, "We went out and got some really, really good players and ultracompetitive guys, and that kind of changed the culture."

One of those really, really good players was third baseman Josh Donaldson, whom the Blue Jays acquired via an offseason trade after the 2014 season. He was a significant boost for Toronto and immediately won the 2015 AL MVP. Signing catcher and Canada native Russell Martin that same offseason was also important.

"For one thing, they brought some toughness to us," manager John Gibbons said. "The previous couple of years, I didn't think we had enough of that. I'd seen Josh from afar playing in Oakland, and I knew what he was about. We got him and it rubbed off on our guys. ... And I'd seen Russ a little bit, but his reputation was the same way, a hard-nosed guy. And Russ is the backbone of this team."

Blue Jays fans have come back in droves, an echo of the record attendance they used to generate. Julian Avram/Icon Sportswire

The two played key roles in completing the Jays' division series sweep of the Rangers on Sunday, with Donaldson scoring the winning run from second base on Martin's grounder. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, whom Toronto acquired in 2015, played a huge role as well, driving in five runs in the series.

"Tulowitzki is the same type of guy," Gibbons said. "They made a big difference because you can have a ton of talent, but if you don't have some toughness, some gamers and some guys who are really motivated every day to win, you come up empty."

Obviously, veterans Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista have been crucial, with Encarnacion hitting 42 home runs in the regular season and three this postseason, including his wild card-winning three-run blast.

Toronto's pitching also has been very good all season -- the Blue Jays had the league's lowest ERA at 3.78 -- and the offense has been powerful, with 221 home runs. There was a slump in September, though, when the Jays averaged the fewest runs per game in the majors and nearly missed the playoffs.

"We rely on that home run ball. And when you run into a little drought, you come up empty a lot of nights," Gibbons said. "It was a tough September. We battled. We really picked it up at the end just to get in, and since the month has turned over into October, it kind of looks like the old team."

Indeed. The Jays homered eight times and scored 22 runs in the division series. They have hit 10 home runs in their four postseason games.

"We're pitching well, and we're playing good defense, and right now, we've been able to hit the homer. And that's big, a big positive for our offense," Donaldson said. "Because there are times when we rely on that, because we don't have a lot of guys in our lineup who are speed-oriented and that are going to take advantage of extra bases. That's not how we're built. We're built to hit the long ball.

"We definitely feel good where we are at right now."

And their fans are feeling good as well, in Victoria and beyond.