Texas took a 3-2 lead when Jays catcher Russell Martin’s throw back to the pitcher hit Shin-Soo Choo’s bat and Rougned Odor ran in from 3rd base to score. Martin tried to throw the ball back to pitcher Aaron Sanchez, but it hit Choo’s bat and ricocheted toward third base.
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Toronto was playing the game under protest after the Texas Rangers were awarded a run in the top of the seventh inning that was marked with controversy and debris littering the field.
The Blue Jays became the third team to win a best-of-five series after losing the first two games at home. They’ll now have to wait until later tonight to see who they’ll face in the ALCS when the Kansas City Royals and Houston Astros battle at 8:07 p.m. ET in another Game 5 matchup. We were down 0-2 in Texas.
“Believe me, this is the toughest time in my career right now”, Andrus said.
The way the Rangers took the lead back seemed just so terribly Toronto, an appropriate kick in the teeth to a city that just can’t seem to have nice things when it comes to its major professional sports teams.
The Blue Jays play the game under protest. However, the throw ricocheted off Choo’s bat as he stretched out his arms and allowed Odor to score, even as the home plate umpire appeared to be calling the play dead.
None adequately describes in full the seventh inning of the deciding fifth game of the ALDS between the Rangers and Blue Jays Wednesday afternoon at Rogers Centre.
Blue Jays pitcher Mark Buehrle may not be on the active roster, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to stand up for his teammates.
The series of events would soon be forgotten as the Blue Jays responded with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame, capped by the Bautista homer to deep left field.
The Rangers then made three consecutive errors to start the bottom of the seventh, with Martin reaching on a fielding error by shortstop Elvis Andrus to start it off. After Mitch Moreland botched a throw to second on a potential double play ball, he dropped a throw from Adrian Beltre that would have gotten the lead runner in a game the Rangers led by a run. He slid home safely when first baseman Chris Colabello elected to throw home after fielding a grounder by designated hitter Prince Fielder.
The benches cleared twice during the 53-minute seventh inning.
It was Fielder’s first RBI since Game 1 of the 2012 AL Championship Series. Jose Bautista then stepped to the plate with two runners on base and launched a monstrous, no-doubt-about-it home run off reliever Sam Dyson that was matched only by his epic post-homer bat-flip. But with plenty of time, his throw across the infield went wide, and first baseman Eric Hosmer had the ball pop from his glove trying to make a swipe tag.
“When Bautista took that swing, there was no doubt about it”, Toronto catcher Russell Martin said.
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Then Bautista-the Jays’ most valuable player through good times and bad, the past seven seasons-stepped to the plate. A franchise that suffered the ultimate heartbreak in the 2011 World Series – one strike away from winning its only World Series – suffered a defeat that will go down in playoff history.
