The Blue Jays were flying high at the time of the Tampa photo shoot, partying their way into the playoffs after a 22-year absence.
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Toronto is listed at -165, with the comeback on Texas at +140.
Delino DeShields and Beltre hit RBI singles to give Texas a 2-0 lead in the third.
“Shoot, he was unbelievable”, said Gibbons.
It is awesome how the big game can bring out the best in a few players. People know who you are. “I’m ready to go tomorrow. So job well done, but he’s been doing that all year”. “[Toronto catcher Dioner] Navarro has a great feel for him”.
“We’ve done it before, he (Price) is on board, so we’ll see how it plays out”. “We stuck with pitches in the zone”. Tulowitzki fouled the first one back but sent the second one into the left-field seats for his first postseason home run since 2007. Just like Estrada was a piece, quietly acquired. 183 since the all-star break to lead the majors. He does it with a signature 79-m.p.h. changeup that makes his cutter, four-seam fastball and curveball all the more hard to hit.
“It’s not the way I perceived it ending”, Cecil said Saturday, a day after sustaining the injury in Game 2 of the AL Division Series.
Price warmed up in the bullpen in the seventh, when the Rangers finally got on the board. A 10-pitch walk to Encarnacion by reliever Chi Chi Gonzalez loaded the base with no outs. He watched intently as fellow southpaws Cole Hamels and Martin Perez started in this series, looking to pick things up in case he was called upon. The only negative was the Brewers held spring training in Arizona where he makes his home while the Jays are based out of Florida. Arlington may fair well for the Blue Jays based on these numbers.
Toronto grounded into four double plays, a franchise record for the post-season. Lackey protected a 1-0 lead by holding the Cubs hitless for five innings, getting help from Kris Bryant’ double-play ball by to end the fourth.
“That’s what we really needed from him“, Banister said. Rangers manager Jeff Banister indicated before the Game 4 loss that left-hander Cole Hamels, not right-hander Yovani Gallardo, would start Game 5. “I was trying to put a good swing on it and obviously had the count in my favor and got a good pitch (change up) to hit”.
Estrada, meanwhile, cooly retired the first eight batters he faced and 12 of the first 13. Troy Tulowitzki, the patient zero of this team’s second-half hurricane, put fuse to dynamite: a two-out, three-run home run in the sixth inning.
As for Tulowitzki, the home run was his first hit of the 2015 post-season, snapping a 0-for-11 drought.
Roberto Osuna pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the Toronto win.
Texas still leads the best-of-five series, 2-1, so Toronto still needs another road win on Monday afternoon to get the series back to Toronto. His previous postseason hit came in the first inning of Game 7 of the 2011 World Series….
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Estrada says he welcomed the chance to come to Toronto, seeing the possibility for a new beginning. They won each of the past 10 games he’s started. We knew that tonight would be a tough ball game. He got his first big league win with the Rangers in 2003 and became a knuckleball pitcher two years later.
