The Royals, after a 4-3 victory over the Blue Jays on Friday night in Game 6 of the ALCS at Kauffman Stadium in front of 40,494 delirious customers, will host the Mets in Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night.
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The Royals then went on to win the World Series against cross-state rival St. Louis in 1985, staging one of the most epic comebacks in playoff history after coming back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-1.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons thinks Price’s poor post-season record is just a matter of bad luck and adds that there’s no one in Toronto’s starting rotation that he’d rather have on the mound with his team trailing the best-of-seven series 3-2.
Jose Bautista ties the score with a two-run homer. Tulowitzki is 7 for 15 with a homer and two doubles in that span, including a three-run double in a 7-1 Game 5 win on Wednesday.
Rain is forecast throughout the day Friday in Kansas City, with the heaviest precipitation expected mainly through the afternoon.
Mike Moustakas homers to right field.
First baseman Chris Colabello homered with one out in the second to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Price is 2-7 overall (0-7 as a starter) in his postseason career, with 36 earned runs in 63 1/3 innings pitched (5.09 ERA).
Both of Bautista’s home runs were against fastballs in the upper half of the zone or above, the first being a 431-foot moon shot.
Rather than hit the cutoff man, though, Bautista threw to second to keep Hosmer to a single. Catcher Salvador Perez drove a David Price pitch to the left-field bullpen fence, but Ben Revere made a spectacular leaping grab to rob him of extra-bases. That’s not a home-run pitch, but it resulted in Madson’s first blown save since May 12, just his third of the year, and the first by a Royals pitcher this postseason.
The Blue Jays and Royals are two scrappy teams that have repeatedly fought off playoff elimination.
Royals starter Yordano Ventura breezed through the first three innings. That gave the speedy Cain, running full speed the entire way, enough time to beat the relay throw from second base with a textbook slide that ignited a sellout crowd.
Kansas City had 30 hits in the first two games in Toronto, but Estrada faced the minimum 20 batters before Lorenzo Cain walked with two outs in the seventh.
Ultimately, it was the Blue Jays who stopped hitting in the key spots, unable to find the key blow they needed to open things up.
The Blue Jays promise they will be, too. But it didn’t seem to dent the confidence of the Royals, who have grown accustomed to tense postseason games.
Alex Gordon strikes out swinging to end the inning.
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“I can’t explain it”, Murphy said. More recently, after losing the first two games to Kansas City, Toronto battled back to pull within 3-2 in the ALCS. “That’s why homefield was so important to us”, Kansas City manager Ned Yost told reporters after the Game 5 loss.
