Blue Jays pitcher Marco Estrada says he’s not going to focus on Game 5 being an elimination game and will just go out, stay even-keeled and pitch like he always does.
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But out of nowhere, the rookie delivered.
Toronto Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion flips his bat after a foul ball against the Cleveland Indians during fourth inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series in Toronto, Wednesday, Oct. 19, .
One potential advantage for Merritt: the Blue Jays haven’t faced him.
The next game that the Cleveland Indians will play will be on Tuesday, October 25 for Game 1 of the World Series. But I knew I was coming to a team that had won a lot and had expectations to win more.
Donaldson’s solo shot to left-center field off Corey Kluber in the third put the Blue Jays ahead for the first time all series. “So for that part of it, it is beyond feeling good”, Francona said.
The Dodgers and Cubs play the fourth game of the series Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium.
Miller was acquired from the New York Yankees for a package of prospects in a July 31 trade, and Cleveland had an interesting idea of how to use him. But it’s the truth. “And it says a lot about this team and a lot about him”, said Miller.
Meanwhile, Aaron Sanchez pitched six strong innings, and with help from the bull pen, Jays pitchers limited the Indians to just two hits. I’m going to try to help him out.
But let’s go back for a moment and take a moment to acknowledge the offense that put the Tribe in a position to win.
Although Merritt claimed to be nervous, his demeanour was no different on the mound as when ice cold sparkling wine was trickling down his hat and soaking his American League Champion shirt.
The Blue Jays almost padded their edge again in the sixth when Tulowitzki opened the inning with a smash off the top of the right-field wall that went for a long single.
No Cleveland pitcher was tougher than ALCS MVP Andrew Miller, who struck out 13 in 7 2/3 scoreless innings.
Carlos Santana and Coco Crisp homered for the Indians. It was the first loss of the postseason for Cleveland, which swept Boston in the AL Division Series before taking the first three games of this matchup.
Toronto lost in the ALCS for the second straight year.
“We’re still alive, no doubt”, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. Because I know what these guys did, and I think it’s a pretty good accomplishment. “Didn’t work out as well as we wanted, but we do have those guys available with a day off behind it”. “Hopefully, it’s next year”.
Thanks to the splendid performance of the bullpen, the Indians won 4-2 to take a 3-0 lead in the series.
Over the past two days, Merritt has sat in the dugout and taken in the atmosphere at raucous Rogers Centre.
Maybe the Blue Jays did, too.
If Merritt was uneasy on the big stage it didn’t show as his pitching made the Blue Jays look like amateurs. The break will give starter Trevor Bauer more time to recover from a lacerated right pinkie, the result of an accident while repairing one of his drones. “Hats off to him”. They don’t have as great a need to cycle players through for added rest. And then he leaped over the occasion and dismantled a potent Toronto lineup to the tune of 4.1 innings pitched, allowing just 2 hits and getting 3 strikeouts along the way. Lindor scored from first on the play.
Merritt was making his postseason debut and his second start in five major-league appearances.
Merritt is a 24 year old southpaw out of Texas; he posted a 12-7, 3.63 ERA with a 105/22 K/BB ratio in 171 innings in 2015 between Double-A and Triple-A, including a seven-inning no-hitter on July 11th.
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Before this summer, Cleveland had a reputation for its sports failures.
