Kevin Pillar, Ezequiel Carrera and Encarnacion, who ended the wild-card game with a three-run homer in the 11th inning, hit solo homers in a five-batter span in the fifth. It should have been an inning-ending double play, but Rougned Odor made a throw wide of first base, allowing Donaldson to score on a heads-up base running play.
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Encarnacion and Martin homered for Toronto.
That said, the Rangers were one of the few teams to get to Sanchez this year, lighting him up for nine earned runs in 13.2 innings during two May starts. The Rangers’ starting pitching was very bad in their short postseason run; in 10 1/3 innings, Texas’s starters (Cole Hamels, Yu Darvish and Lewis) allowed 16 hits and 17 runs, 16 of them earned.
The Boston-Cleveland game was called off long before the gates had opened or the starting pitchers had begun to warm up.
Bautista’s homer and emphatic bat flip in Game 5 was the lasting image from Toronto’s ALDS win over the Rangers last season. After the game, the Blue Jays stuck around to acknowledge their fans.
“I’ve always thought he’s going to be good”, said manager John Gibbons. Jake Diekman replaced Jeremy Jeffress with one out and one on in the inning to face the left-hitting Michael Saunders. Kela needed one more out but a passed ball by catcher Jonathan Lucroy allowed Troy Tulowitzki to score from third to tie it at 6-6. Bush then struck out Jose Bautista. Winning pitcher Blake Treinen retired all four batters he faced, lefty Oliver Perez sat down both batters he saw in the eighth and closer Mark Melancon pitched the ninth for the save.
The Blue Jays came back with three runs in the bottom of the first.
It was a 7-6 win in the city that’s become known as The 6ix sending the Toronto Blue Jays into their seventh ALCS in franchise history. The veteran finished the year with a 6-5 record and a 3.71 ERA in 19 starts, but those numbers don’t reflect how effective he was, especially in the first half of the season. “I think Josh and Russ were the first two newcomers here of the group that’s here, and they brought some toughness to us”, said Gibbons. The Rangers then walked Edwin Encarnacion setting up a déjà vu situation.
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Lobaton hit a three-run homer, Daniel Murphy provided more-expected production by driving in a pair of insurance runs, and Washington’s bullpen threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings Sunday, leading the Nationals past the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2 in a rain-postponed Game 2 to even their NL Division Series at 1-all. Beltran walked to lead off the inning and was forced out at second on a grounder to second by Adrian Beltre. He is day to day with a bone bruise but has no structural damage. They won the first two games of the 2015 ALDS against the Blue Jays before being eliminated after losing the final three games of the series. Beer was instead poured into plastic cups. Toronto reached the ALDS after an AL Wild Card game win over the Baltimore Orioles. Texas OF Nomar Mazara, 21, is the second-youngest Rangers player to participate in postseason.
