The Jays seemed to be handed all the breaks in the series, every opportunity to knock down the door, but failed.
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Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista delivered two of the most celebrated moments of the past 20 years of Blue Jays baseball.
Some places were already sold out of the adult-sized t-shirts the team wore in the locker room after Wednesday’s game.
After capturing their sixth pennant, thanks in large part to Miller, the Indians are four wins from their first championship since 1948.
But it’s all you’ve got for now.
Their opponents are still unknown, as the Chicago Cubs beat the LA Dodgers 10-2 to tie their series at 2-2. Cleveland didn’t play either club this season. But it’s the truth. Miller said. “Maybe we have guys that aren’t on billboards across the country, maybe not yet”.
Merritt’s major league resume consists of 11 regular-season innings this year. Then there was Encarnacion’s spine-tingling 11th-inning walk-off homer earlier this month to win the wild-card game.
“I told (Mike) Napoli (Wednesday) morning, I said, ‘Napoli, I know the team, they need me, and I have to do something special, ‘” he said. On that occasion, they defeated the Oakland Athletics in five games. “But it settled down, just trusted myself, stayed within myself, didn’t let the – tried not to let the crowd get to me too much, trusted my defense and just be myself out there”. They hit Corey Kluber well in Game 1, but couldn’t get any runs across. Even the lone hiccup in Toronto’s rotation this time around, Marcus Stroman’s four-run performance in Game 3, is hardly bad enough to guarantee a loss under normal circumstances. Only Clayton Kershaw has more strikeouts than Miller this postseason. Series MVP Andrew Miller worked 2 1/3 innings, handing the ball over to Cody Allen.
Carlos Santana and Coco Crisp homered for the Indians.
As a team, the Blue Jays pitched extremely well.
To the surprise of few, Andrew Miller took his flawless 2016 postseason performance to the World Series earning an MVP award along the way. Toronto is headed home for the second consecutive season short of its World Series goal. “But overall I feel really proud for the fans and what this organization has done for me”.
“It’s unreal, man. I was crying out there”, shortstop Francisco Lindor said on the field after the game. “Hopefully, it’s next year”.
Ryan Merritt #54 of the Cleveland Indians throws a pitch in the first inning.
Toronto slugger Jose Bautista helped raise Merritt’s profile when he said the rookie would be “shaking in his boots” before Game 5.
After the Blue Jays were eliminated, Bautista took a different tone. “Hats off to him”.
And players say they don’t read the newspaper.
The Jays were unable to take advantage of Merritt’s inexperience, allowing him to work 4 1/3 shutout innings.
Miller pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth, with Allen coming in to close it out. Lindor scored from first on the play. “Both of them made their name here in Toronto”.
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Start times and probable pitchers have yet to be announced.
