Toronto and Kansas City begin the American League Championship Series on Friday night.
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Instead the Royals chipped away at the Blue Jays en route to the win, outhitting Toronto 8-3. The regular season is one thing, but the playoffs are a completely different animal. Kansas City fans will look to root on their home team as Kauffman Stadium hosts this first game with Edinson Volquez on the mound. “They have a lot of team speed”.
It’ll be Edinson Volquez getting the game one start against the high powered Jays bats.
NOTES: Blue Jays DH Edwin Encarnacion left after seven innings to have his left middle finger X-rayed…. But he struck out Encarnacion, induced Chris Colabello to fly out after an eight-pitch at bat, before needing seven deliveries to strike out Tulo Tulowitzki in a 37-pitch inning. But Toronto was also favoured in the ALDS and they barely escaped that five game set. It was another strong night for Kansas City’s relievers, and they didn’t even have to use closer Wade Davis.
“That problem becomes more acute now that the Cubs have advanced to the National League Championship Series”, said Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune.
Sanchez was ejected in the eighth after throwing inside at Alcides Escobar twice, hitting him on the leg the second time. Enough to enable the Royals to pitch around everyone’s favourite debating point, Jose Bautista.
That meant the 40-year-old was denied a win in his first post-season start. Lester is 6-5 with a 2.66 ERA in 15 career postseason games, including 13 starts. Donaldson managed a walk off Volquez but little else, while Tulowitzki – one of the Blue Jays’ big deadline acquisitions – had two strikeouts.
Volquez (1-1) ramped up his fastball to 97 miles per hour to slice through a potent Blue Jays offense, never allowing a runner past second base over six innings. Kansas City native and White House press secretary Josh Earnest is a red-blooded Royals fan, and he’s not afraid to show it.
Royals right fielder Alex Rios predicted a series that will grab baseball’s attention. Well, Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera remain more than reliable.
The Royals, who scored two runs in the third, added to their lead on Salvador Perez’s third homer of the postseason.
After squandering a scoring chance in the first inning, the Royals jumped ahead in the third. He’ll be missed. The only other lefty in the pen is Aaron Loup and he’s had a pretty lousy season (though he was good in the ALDS). He threw 90 pitches, 64 for strikes. He was removed from the game for a pinch-hitter in the eighth with a hand injury. Walked the first time.
Major League Baseball will review security at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in an effort to prevent a repeat of the fan disturbance during Game 5 of the Blue Jays’ AL Division Series win over Texas. The Royals went on to defeat the Cardinals in the World Series, and even though that series 30 years ago will have no implications on how things will turn out this year, Kansas will be hoping for this series to go a similar way.
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Asked if the bad blood might spill into this series, Royals manager Ned Yost said emphatically: “No, I do not”.
