There was a question as to whether the Royals would stick with closer Wade Davis who had been pitching before the rain delay.
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The party’s over Jays fans. Moments before Bautista struck for the second time, the Jays were approaching the brink of elimination.
At that point, rain had begun falling heavily and the game was delayed for 45 minutes. Encarnacion settled in to the designated hitter’s role by the end of the regular season, leaving Colabello and Smoak to share first base in the post-season.
CITY-They didn’t go quietly, but the Jays came up short in just about every facet of the game to the Kansas City Royals, who have now won back-to-back American League championships.
After the delay, Cain calmly worked a leadoff walk from Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna, and Hosmer followed with a clean single that Bautista fielded down the right-field line.
Jirschele had noticed all series that Bautista usually threw to second in those situations. Cain was going to go first-to-third easy.
In the annals of the postseason, it will read the Royals took a 4-3 when Eric Hosmer singled in Cain in the bottom of the eighth.
Toronto mounted one last threat in the ninth. A lead off base hit from catcher, Russell Martin had Toronto in business. Dalton Pompey, who displayed his prolific base-running talents Friday night when pinch running for Martin, managed to steal twice off Davis, and get to 3rd. He too stole second.
I wasn’t expecting Donaldson to ground out to third.
For the second time this year and the fifth time since October 1, 2014, the Royals locker room at Kauffman was drenched in Champagne and beer. Already, they’ve made history – this is the first World Series between franchises born in the expansion-era 1960s.
Zobrist pounced on Blue Jays ace David Price in the first inning, pulling a 1-1 pitch from his old Tampa Bay teammate down the left-field line.
Revere hit Ventura’s third delivery into right field for a double but the Royals starter retired the next 10 Jays.
The putaway breaking ball was borderline, but stike two – the fourth pitch – was a high fastball that was off the plate. Ryan Goins made two more of his trademark terrific fielding plays. Replays showed that the glove was below the level of the wall, and the force of the ball smacked the glove into it. How clear does the evidence need to be? Soft-hitting Willie Wilson launched a home run for a two-run lead. The Jays challenged. The ruling stood. That made the score 2-0. In part, Cain was taking advantage of rightfielder Jose Bautista’s fundamentally sound decision to throw to second to hold Hosmer to a single, but there was no reason for Bautista to expect Cain to be attempting to score from first on a base hit to right.
The second batter to do so was Ben Zobrist, who walloped a Price cutter into the left-field seats.
Price enjoyed his time with the club and certainly was the main factor in the Jays reaching the post-season for the first time since 1993, but the money and term he’ll be commanding might be out of reach of what team owner Rogers is willing to spend.
Jays of the Day: No numbers needed.
It ultimately did not matter, but it really felt like the Royals should have scored more than one run that inning.
You could talk about the strike two calls to Ben Revere and Dioner Navarro. “Of course I want him back”. In addition to costing the Jays a chance at a World Series berth, his playoff starts might have cost him millions of dollars as he enters free agency this off-season.
Davis was one of the pitchers the Royals acquired three years ago, in one of Moore’s most criticized trades. As he walked off to a standing ovation, first-base coach Tim Leiper caught his eye.
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Ventura was working from the stretch to keep in rhythm, and his approach appeared to be working.
