ALCS Game Two

Going into the series with Toronto, it seemed not unlikely that we’d see some friction. The two teams butted heads in early August, and then the Blue Jays really got into it – including two bench-clearing altercations in one hour-long inning – while putting the Rangers away. The first game of the ALCS looked clean (at least from where we were sitting), but this one got a little noisy. Jose Bautista was especially bad, faking a toss into the stands and then later badmouthing a teammate for a bad play that was at least partially his own fault.

Still, his frustration – if not its expression – was understandable. Starter David Price threw six innings of excellent baseball. He gave up a first-pitch-of-the-game single to Alcides Escobar, but after that it was 18 straight outs. Behind him, the Jays scored one in the third and two in the sixth. It wasn’t a commanding lead, but it was starting to look like it might hold up.

It looked like our dismal luck would continue when Ben Zobrist led off the seventh with a pop-up to shallow right. But when Bautista and Ryan Goins both looked like they might come up short, the crowd noise picked up. Apparently it was enough to disrupt the “I got it” shouts they needed to complete the play. The ball dropped between them – one of Joe Morgan’s “team errors” – and Zobrist was safe at first.

Four singles and a double later, we’d scored five runs and taken a lead we’d hold until the end of the game. More station-to-station hitting tacked on another run in the bottom of the next inning, but it was just insurance. Our bullpen shut the Jays down, and we found ourselves headed to Toronto with a two-to-nothing lead in the series.

This afternoon the Royals did what they’ve been doing best. We’ve got the new trick of the late inning comeback combined with the old trick of ace relievers holding our leads. If I had any hair to raise, games like this would be a hair-raising experience. But if that’s how we win games, so be it.

BLUE JAYS (3) AT ROYALS (6)

BLUE JAYS            AB  R  H BI  ROYALS               AB  R  H BI
Ben Revere            5  0  0  0  Alcides Escobar       4  0  1  0  
Josh Donaldson        5  1  1  0  Ben Zobrist           4  1  1  0  
Jose Bautista         4  1  0  0  Lorenzo Cain          3  1  1  0  
Edwin Encarnacion     4  0  2  1  Eric Hosmer           3  2  1  1  
Chris Colabello       4  0  2  0  Kendrys Morales       3  0  0  1  
Troy Tulowitzki       4  0  2  1  Mike Moustakas        4  1  2  2  
Russell Martin        3  0  0  0  Salvador Perez        4  0  0  0  
Kevin Pillar          4  1  2  0  Alex Gordon           3  1  1  1  
Ryan Goins            3  0  1  1  Alex Rios             3  0  1  1  
 Cliff Pennington     0  0  0  0                                    
TOTALS               36  3 10  3  TOTALS               31  6  8  6

BLUE JAYS                     001 002 000 -- 3  
ROYALS                        000 000 51x -- 6  

LOB--BLUE JAYS 9, ROYALS 4. 2B--Chris Colabello, Troy
Tulowitzki, Ryan Goins, Kevin Pillar, Alex Gordon.

 BLUE JAYS                       IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR
David Price                    6.67    6    5    5    0    8    0
Aaron Sanchez                  0.67    1    0    0    1    0    0
Aaron Loup                     0.33    1    1    1    2    0    0
Mark Lowe                      0.33    0    0    0    0    0    0
 ROYALS                     
Yordano Ventura                5.33    8    3    3    2    6    0
Luke Hochevar                  0.67    0    0    0    0    0    0
Danny Duffy                    1.00    0    0    0    0    1    0
Kelvin Herrera                 1.00    1    0    0    0    2    0
Wade Davis                     1.00    1    0    0    1    2    0

SO--Jose Bautista, Russell Martin, Chris Colabello, Troy
Tulowitzki, Edwin Encarnacion (2), Josh Donaldson (2), Ben
Revere (2), Ryan Goins, Kendrys Morales, Alex Rios, Ben
Zobrist, Alex Gordon, Alcides Escobar, Eric Hosmer (2),
Salvador Perez. BB--Jose Bautista, Russell Martin, Cliff
Pennington, Kendrys Morales, Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer.