TORONTO – The Blue Jays fought off postseason elimination for the fourth time in these playoffs, riding the brilliance of Marco Estrada and yet another huge three-run hit by Troy Tulowitzki, this one a double. They’re going back to Kansas City, with another do-or-die in the offing Friday night.
The Royals were never able to get anything going against Estrada, who shut them down on just one hit and one walk over seven remarkable innings, finally allowing a two-out solo homer in the eighth. It was the righty’s second start in a potential elimination game, and he allowed two runs on eight hits over 14 innings in those contests.
It was likely the greatest playoff start ever for a Blue Jays pitcher. While Estrada handled the entire Royals’ lineup with aplomb, what stands out given the way the series has gone is what he did with the top of it.
Alcides Escobar, the Royals’ leadoff hitter, had been a massive thorn in the Jays’ sides over the first four games. Not only was he hitting an outlandish .600 for the series coming into Game 5, he’d set an LCS record by getting a hit to lead off the first inning of every game.
Estrada began the game by throwing Escobar a low fastball on the outer half, and the Royals’ sparkplug rolled over on it and hit a ground ball to third. Josh Donaldson handled it and there was one out one pitch into the ballgame.
Escobar singled in his next at-bat, leading off the fourth with a ground ball to left just out of the reach of Troy Tulowitzki, but he was immediately erased as Ben Zobrist hit a ground ball to second that Ryan Goins turned into a double play.
The combination of Escobar and Zobrist had been 12-for-17 over Games 3 and 4, with nine runs scored and six runs batted in between them. The top three of the Royals’ line-up, including 2014 ALCS MVP Lorenzo Cain, hit an incredible .447/.463/.660 over the first four games of the series.
Against Estrada, they went 1-for-8 with a walk.
With no one on base in front of them, the Royals’ middle-of-the-order bats had no one to drive in. No pressure was put on Estrada and the defense behind him because he only had to throw three pitches out of the stretch over his entire outing. Three. That’s not a typo.
The Kansas City Royals have been called a “pesky” offensive team, but that term doesn’t seem like it gives enough respect to a team that averaged more than eight runs per over the first four games of this ALCS. Escobar, Zobrist and Cain scored almost half of those runs – 15 of 33 – reaching base an astounding 25 times.
Stifling them was a major key to the Blue Jays taking this series back to Missouri, and now it’s David Price’s turn to try his hand at it in Game 6. The trio was 3-for-9 against Price in Game 2, with Zobrist and Cain starting the five-run, seventh-inning rally with back-to-back hits to lead off the frame.
Price managed to hold the Royals almost completely in check for six innings earlier in the series, and the Blue Jays need him to carry that dominance a little further Friday night in order to get to a winner-take-all seventh game.