LEADING OFF: Postseason returns to Toronto, KC hosts Astros

The gaudy number wasn’t just paid attendance, either. They seized control of the Central since mid-April and spent 175 days in first place, all but securing a playoff spot by late July and finishing the season in strong fashion to stave off the Pirates.

The victor of that game continues on to play another divisional rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, in a best-of-five series.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers begin their American League Division Series tonight at the Rogers Centre.

If you like offense, you’ll love the Blue Jays.

That was the last postseason before the wild card, as well as the last before a labor dispute wiped out the World Series the following year. “They know the way I pitch”. They finished ninth in baseball in position player WAR, and sixth in pitcher WAR, but they also had the only staff with a sub-3 ERA. The two games he started were the only two times that Texas beat Toronto this season. 333 as the starting shortstop in the ’93 World Series and led the team with nine RBI, recently returned to Toronto on behalf of his eponymous charitable foundation. “We had something that people came after and they took it from us”. Everybody was talking about baseball.

It’s hard to see that happening to Price, regardless of the outcome.

Anyway, those tomes will paint the game in a momentary bad light – the Fisher story spawned triangle jokes seconds after it got out – and that’s not what they needed as the season approaches.

Toronto brought Donaldson into a lineup that already included a pair of sluggers in Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.

“It can turn 95 into 96”, Price said. “Don’t over-analyze and make it over-complicated and get ahead of ourselves”. “It pumps you up”.

The Cardinals have their own issues right now, but middle-of-the-order bats Matt Holliday and Randal Grichuk are as healthy as they’ve been in months (the extra rest didn’t hurt) and that should help boost an offense that’s struggled.

“It would be so muggy with all that body heat”, Revere said. Over his career, he is 11-1 at the Rogers Centre. It may even influence game action, to the benefit of the home ballclub.

“It’s just been electric, every crowd has been enormous”, Lowe said.

“You just kind of feel the excitement”, Gibbons said.

So here’s hoping that whoever gets to go the game is in full throat because it really is quite a scene, one we haven’t seen here in a very long time.

Ostensible ace Johnny Cueto, acquired at the trade deadline, has been a frequently mediocre enigma since arriving in K.C. And the Royals’ once-vaunted bullpen was dinged by the loss of closer Greg Holland to an elbow injury. I knew he wanted one, so I ordered one for him and my husband.

Could it play in October, especially against a big-swinging team such as the Blue Jays?

Canada is internationally regarded as a multicultural country, and the Brampton area in Ontario is… “My children were born there”.

In the ALCS, I’m going with Kansas City to finish Toronto’s season. They made key acquisitions, had comeback kids, and earned the best two second-half records in the American League. The world will be on Toronto and Price and I can’t argue but Gallardo has given the Jays a few trouble and the chalk is steep…

I have had the opportunity to travel to Toronto to watch many home games and have also had the opportunity to attend the All Star Game.