The nine innings lasted only two hours and 30 minutes, but they were draining.
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On the field, tempers flared between the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals, but no punches were thrown. Each GM delivered: Kansas City’s Dayton Moore snared right-hander Johnny Cueto from the Reds and Tortonto’s Alex Anthopoulos grabbed lefty David Price from the Tigers.
Tensions exploded Sunday between the Royals and Blue Jays, which lead to both teams clearing their benches and the ejection of Toronto manager John Gibbons, right-hander Aaron Sanchez and bench coach DeMarlo Hale.
“Obviously, I know what the situation was…my job is to get a clean inning, and obviously (the hit pitch on Escobar) wasn’t intentional”, Sanchez said. Donaldson didn’t like it, and glared at Volquez, but took his spot at first base. “He was crying like a baby”. But Dyson got Hunter Pence to ground into a double play to end the game and record his first career save. “It’s been a nice feeling here and I think everybody is excited to keep pushing forward and play the season out with what we got”. “He’s not Barry Bonds”, Volquez said. Acquired Friday from the Seattle Mariners for three left-handed minor-league pitchers, he proceeded to give up three on four hits to get the loss in his debut. “We’ve been around longer than he has”. But Wilson apparently only chose this course after pursuing a diagnosis on his own, and MLB.com reported that several teammates believed Wilson should pitch through the issue.
“I thought he threw the ball great”, manager Ned Yost said.
The Blue Jays nabbed three of four from their guests, hammering Kansas City pitching for much of the weekend. Bautista’s RBI double followed, but so did more madness. Volquez and Madson each hit a batter. Neither was ejected, unlike Sanchez.
After getting the first two outs, Sanchez hit Alcides Escobar, the Royals leadoff batter, in the leg with a 97-mile-an-hour fastball. “I don’t think he made a lot of the right decisions today”, Donaldson said of Wolf. “Absolutely”. It was the sixth time this season the Blue Jays have hit consecutive home runs.
Gibbons said Dickey was “as good as we’ve seen him”.
DODGERS 5, ANGELS 4, 10 inn.: In Los Angeles, Andre Ethier hit his second dramatic home run in three innings, a two-run shot in the 10th, and Howie Kendrick also homered to lead the Dodgers to a three-game Freeway Series sweep.
The games at Rogers Centre against the Royals had a postseason feel to them, especially the 5-2 win on Sunday.
Toronto battered their opponents for 27 innings, even in Saturday’s Royals comeback victory.
Add to that Toronto starter R.A. Dickey comparing the Royals to a school-yard bully, and it’s easy to imagine how fun a playoff series between these teams would be. “They’ve got tremendous power”. His previous start was a three-hit shutout on July 23 at New York in which he took a flawless game into the seventh inning. “You have to utilize the inside part of the plate to open up the outside part of the plate, and it happens”. If he gets mad, there’s nothing I can do. “I stayed away for the most part”. That mess started in the middle innings, when Pedro Villarreal hit Andrew McCutchen, who seems to be a hit-by-pitch magnet. But pitchers are a different breed; they have their routines and often are more comfortable adjusting them for an extra day of rest, not one day fewer.
Toronto made it 5-1 in the fifth on back-to-back home runs by Donaldson, a two-run drive into the second deck, and Bautista.
Donaldson, who had been hit and buzzed around the head three times by Volquez, was upset with Wolf because he felt the umpire mismanaged calls leading up to that moment.
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“It’s everything you want the game to be”, said Blue Jays first baseman Chris Colabello, who hit a two-run homer in the fourth.
