Once Again Toronto Comes Up Short : Blue Jays: Players are second-guessing, but it won’t give them a second chance in this series.

This was the Toronto Blue Jays team to shake the ghosts and go the distance.

Instead, the American League Championship Series turned into another haunting experience that exposed Manager Cito Gaston to criticism and the Blue Jays to what may be perceived as another last-gasp gag.

“With the guys we have, we should have at least won the American League pennant,” said veteran pitcher Jimmy Key after an 8-5 loss Sunday gave that pennant to the Minnesota Twins, who won the best-of-seven playoff in five games, sweeping the last three on the Blue Jays’ synthetic surface.

Key shook his head and said:

“I didn’t work hard all year just to get this far and be happy about it. That’s not good enough. It’s getting old. I felt this was the club that could go all the way, but we didn’t get the job done.

“I won’t single out one play or one player, but if you can’t win at home you don’t deserve to win.”

Key won 16 games during the regular season, the most by any Toronto pitcher, but started only Game 3 against the Twins. Juan Guzman, the hottest Toronto pitcher in the second half, started only Game 2.

Gaston designed his playoff rotation on the basis of pitching contrasts. Tom Candiotti, the knuckleballer, pitched Game 1, followed by Guzman, Key and Todd Stottlemyre.

The rotation put Candiotti out there in Game 5 again Sunday, and some Blue Jays grumbled privately that the scheme should have been built around Key and Guzman, their most successful starters.

“I’m frustrated and disappointed that I only got one start in a series we lost,” said Key, who has been with the Blue Jays since 1984, living through all the October failures.

“I’d have loved to have one more chance, but Cito decided I would pitch in Games 3 and 7, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

“He had a game plan, and it didn’t work out, but it’s his ball club and he can run it the way he wants.”

Gaston made a brief appearance in the interview room after the game, then disappeared behind the locked door of his office.

Candiotti, second in the league with an earned-run average of 2.65, during the regular season, was 8.22 for two starts in the playoffs, allowing 16 hits and nine earned runs in 10 1/3 innings.

He said he wanted the one more chance after pitching only 2 2/3 innings in Game 1 and felt he “redeemed” himself Sunday, leaving with a 5-2 lead in the sixth inning.

General manager Pat Gillick acquired Candiotti and Candy Maldonado during the season after dealing for Devon White, Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar before it started.

The Blue Jays had insisted that it was unfair to compare this team with those of the past; to predict that it, too, might choke, if that is indeed what happened; to compare it to teams:

--In 1985, when the Blue Jays lost a 3-1 playoff lead to Kansas City.

--In 1987, when they blew a 3 1/2-game lead over the Detroit Tigers with seven to play.

--In 1990, when they couldn’t hold a 1 1/2-game lead over the Boston Red Sox with seven to play.

The litany now includes the 1991 playoff in which they lost three consecutive home games, leaving 10 runners on base in a 3-2 loss Friday night and losing a 5-2 lead on Sunday.

They are the only team, besides the Angels, to have reached the playoffs three times without winning.

Chokers?

“If people want to call us that, it doesn’t bother me,” said Gillick. “We’ll keep working to correct it. I think we need more punch. We need to give our pitchers more leeway, more runs to work with.”

Gillick said that this and the ’85 playoff loss to Kansas City were more frustrating than the five-game loss to the Oakland Athletics in 1989.

“It’s always more difficult to lose a series you think you have a chance of winning,” he said.

It happened, said Carter, who was restricted to the designated hitter role in Games 4 and 5 because of a sprained ankle, because of the domination of the Twins bullpen when the Blue Jays had chances to blow games open.

He insisted, however, they had no reason to be ashamed, that they adjusted to a change in chemistry to win the division and were capable of the next step next year.

“Twenty-two clubs were sitting home and watching,” he said. “I look on it as a productive season for myself and the team.”

Added reliever Tom Henke: “This is the third time we’ve come up short, but the consolation is I’m confident we’ll be back next year. One of these times we’re going to take the next step. I just hope I’m not too old and creaky by then.”

Mookie Wilson, who has been in four playoffs with the Blue Jays and Mets, said he already is.

“There are only so many miracles, and I’ve used mine up,” he said, “but if the Blue Jays keep knocking on the door, one of these times the guy on the other side isn’t going to be strong enough to keep them out.”