Toronto won four of the seven games between the two during the regular season. They led 2-0 only four batters into Game 7 before losing 6-2, their second loss in as many years in the World Series.
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The Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays promise plenty of fireworks in their American League Championship Series, and not just because one team features power arms and the other power bats.
“I’m sure many Canadians will be watching the baseball game after they’ve had an opportunity to go to the polls”, said Kory Teneycke. The Kansas City Royals are a team that comes with a reputation.
The past serves as prologue for the American League Championship Series. The Royals allowed only 68 runs in the first inning, which was the second fewest in baseball, whereas the Blue Jays yielded 116, tied for second-most. Volquez will start in Game 1 against fellow right-hander Marco Estrada. It snapped a postseason hitless streak of 10 2-3 innings for the Royals, one out shy of matching the record set by the New York Yankees in 1939. One of the best moments in Jays history was Bautista’s home run and his celebration was one of the best in the history, pure raw emotion and happiness from him after playing over 1400 games in the majors and not one playoff appearance that home run was definitely the best he had hit in his entire career.
Chris Colabello got the nod at first base over Justin Smoak, with Troy Tulowitzki, Dioner Navarro, Kevin Pillar and Ryan Goins at the bottom of the Blue Jays lineup. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said he was almost hit by a beer can. Tensions escalated as the game went on, with Toronto reliever Aaron Sanchez returning the favor by hitting Escobar to trigger the first of two benches-clearing scuffles. But those infield errors preceded Jose Bautista’s tiebreaking three-run homer off Dyson. Two days later, Price arrived from Detroit, and Anthopoulos capped a busy trade-deadline flurry by landing Revere from the Phillies and Lowe from the Mariners. In both September and August the Rangers finished 18-10 and climbed their way to the top of the AL West finishing out the season with a decisive 9-2 victory against the division-rival Angels. Both Volquez and manager Ned Yost said they will be unafraid to pitch inside. Kansas City had three players hit 20 or more homers after none reached that plateau last season…. Volquez smoked Donaldson with a 94-mph fastball in the first inning.
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That was a big reason why they were able to down the Astros in their divisional series. After pushing the San Francisco Giants to the brink a year ago in the World Series, the Royals want to show what they’ve done is no fluke either.
