TORONTO – Back at the beginning of August, when Edinson Volquez called Josh Donaldson “a little baby,” and the all-star third baseman described the right-hander as “some pretty good hitting,” the benches cleared, and a rivalry was born. This was the playoff matchup everybody wanted.
The defending American League champion Kansas City Royals, believing they ran the neighbourhood, were eager to show it against the upstart Toronto Blue Jays, who had no intention of deferring to the big bully on the block.
Those four games around the non-waiver trade deadline, when both clubs built up for the runs they’re currently on, were so compelling, so hard-fought, so dramatic that the sequel between them in best-of-seven American League Championship Series is only fitting.
Beat the best to be the best. Bring it on.
Adding spice is the expected Game 1 matchup of Volquez against Marco Estrada on Friday.
Volquez turned up the tension between the teams Aug. 2 by hitting Donaldson with a pitch the Blue Jays believed was intentional in the first inning, prompting home plate umpire Jim Wolf to warn both benches. The right-hander proceeded to go up and in a couple more times in subsequent at-bats, and Donaldson complained to Wolf.
In the seventh, Troy Tulowitzki was struck by reliever Ryan Madson, who wasn’t ejected, and then in the eighth, Aaron Sanchez hit Alcides Escobar in the knee with a sinker, leading Wolf to throw him out. The benches cleared. Cooler heads prevailed, sort of. So did the Blue Jays, winning 5-2 to take three of four in the series.
“He’s a little baby, he was crying like a baby,” Volquez said after the game, adding later: “He got mad at everybody like he’s Barry Bonds. He’s not Barry Bonds. He’s got three years in the league. We’ve been around longer than he has.”
Donaldson later said he didn’t want Volquez to get bounced since he’d rather have him on the mound to tee off against.
The trash talk didn’t stop there.
Royals starter Yordano Ventura ripped Jose Bautista in a series of Spanish tweets that he later deleted, criticizing the all-star right-fielder for showboating and running his mouth while describing him as a nobody.
Asked for his reply, Bautista took the high road: “I think he’s a great player. I think he’s a young player that could use some maturing. Hopefully he focuses on playing the game and allows his ability to create a name for himself and be a good part of his community wherever he ends up establishing himself as a pitcher.”
The Blue Jays, having added Tulowitzki, LaTroy Hawkins, David Price, Mark Lowe and Ben Revere prior to the trade deadline, took off after that clash with the Royals. They opened the series on July 30 at 51-51 and finished the season at 42-18.
On the final day of the regular season, R.A. Dickey said that “the Kansas City series, I thought, was a real defining moment for us. We beat them three out of four, we should have swept them, they’re a really good team, and they had that swagger going, that whole series was good foreshadowing, for someone who appreciates story, I felt like it was going to be pretty good foreshadowing of what was to come later on. It was special because I felt like it really galvanized us in some way.”
Add Tulowitzki: “The Kansas City series was big for us. At the time we were in the mix but hadn’t established ourselves yet, and that sent a message across baseball and definitely to them that we had a good team.”
Any lingering bad blood is likely to take a backseat in the ALCS, when stakes are high and personal agendas too costly, but it still adds a compelling undercurrent to the series.
Emotions run high in the post-season, as the three times the benches emptied between the Blue Jays and Texas Rangers in their five-game American League Division Series demonstrated. When teams don’t like one another, it builds up the powder keg.
But now a trip to the World Series is on the line, and two power-houses are good to go after surviving scares in the first round, the Royals trailing 6-2 in the eighth inning of Game 4 before rallying past the Houston Astros, the Blue Jays coming back from a 2-0 series deficit against the Rangers.
“What a team full of guys with fortitude, that’s all I can say,” said Dickey. “To win two on the road with our backs against the wall, I felt like we had the advantage because we had already played two elimination games and they hadn’t played any. We absorbed the moment. It was fantastic.”
The Blue Jays come out of that series with their pitching staff well rested, too.
“To get through that game (using) three guys,” said pitching coach Pete Walker, “we have David Price rested, we didn’t have to use Marco Estrada, we’re in a great position moving forward.”
The Royals will have something to say about that, for sure, and the Blue Jays are waiting to respond.
