Edinson Volquez, 32 years old, 6-foot tall and 220 pounds, with a receding hairline and an easy smile, won’t adorn the cover of People magazine anytime soon.
Advertisement
The series matches the American League’s top teams, with the Royals (95-67) and Jays (93-69) finishing 1-2 in the standings. The Blue Jays are known for their powerful bats and the Royals for their dominant bullpen and terrific defense, but these are two well-balanced teams that have absolutely earned the right to be on this stage.
Marco Estrada will start Game 1 of the ALCS against the Royals on Friday, John Lott of the National Post reports. But he struck out Encarnacion, induced Chris Colabello to fly out after an eight-pitch at bat, before needing seven deliveries to strike out Tulo Tulowitzki in a 37-pitch inning.
For 25 minutes, Volquez stood atop the mound, fans chanting his name – “Edd-ie, Edd-ie” – and the Blue Jays testing his fortitude.
While the Royals pesky lineup is a problem for most pitchers, Price has actually fared well against them recently.
Volquez came into the game 0-4 with a 6.46 ERA in his career against the Blue Jays.
On the inside of his cap, Volquez writes goals at which he’ll constantly peek to remind himself his imperatives.
Both teams got a man on second early – in the first inning for Kansas City and third for Toronto – but could not make anything of it. Justin Smoak pinch hit in the eighth inning and popped up with two runners on base.
Volquez, after all, came into Friday believing he would pound Toronto inside with fastballs. 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. He and Perez agreed to audible.
That mid-summer series also represented a turning point in the Blue Jays’ season.
The Blue Jays almost ended the streak an inning earlier. “I elevated it a lot more than I wanted to”. “When you’re having to deal with that and he’s able to flip that curveball in there for strikes at times … normally his second pitch is his changeup, and when you’re throwing 97 and you have a pretty good changeup behind it, it’s hard”. “If you can do that, you can kind of manage that running game a little bit better and just take it pitch by pitch”.
“Tonight was the Volquez show”.
Still, there was a few question whether Drew Butera might get the start Saturday. He listened to pitching coach Dave Eiland, who told him to slow down. Well, Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera remain more than reliable.
Estrada gave up three runs on six hits with six strikeouts and no walks.
Volquez (1-1) struck out five and walked four in a 111-pitch performance highlighted by a memorable sixth inning.
“I know he’s going to get out of that inning”, Herrera said. “So we thought today would be a good matchup for him”.
Eric Hosmer, Kendry Morales, Mike Moustakas and Alex Gordon each drove in a run before Price was pulled. Outside of a Mike Moustakas error in the ninth, it was the Royals’ personified: clean, efficient, effective.
The starting pitching matchups seem about even, on paper.
The Royals finally broke through against David Price, rallying to take the lead in the seventh by batting around. The free-swinging Jays were shut out just five times during the regular season.
“He was obviously really good”, said Tulowitzki.
“Playoffs”, Perez said. “Playoffs, everything change”.
Advertisement
Like many baseball fans, Lee is superstitious. He wasn’t the Sexiest Man Alive, not by any stretch of the imagination.
