Blue Jays top Rangers 5-1 to avoid elimination

Such is the additional care the star needs to play and hope his club stave off elimination in the American League Division Series, as Sunday night’s 5-1 Game 3 win did to keep the Jays’ chances alive in their first postseason appearance in 22 years.

The series will resume Monday afternoon at Globe Life Park, with Derek Holland taking the mound for the Rangers against the Blue Jays’ R.A. Dickey. “I’m not at my best, but I’m good enough to go out there and today it was good enough to win the game”.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said Donaldson felt light-headed while playing defense in the top of the fifth, forcing the AL MVP candidate to come out of the game. If Dickey pitches well, Price could still be used in a high-leverage situation against lefties like Shin-Soo Choo, Prince Fielder and Josh Hamilton, given the injury to Brett Cecil earlier in the series. While he’s had a few good games – eight innings of one-run ball against the Angels on September 5, for example – he’s also had a few clunkers, four straight down the stretch before holding the Angels to three runs over 6.1 innings in a 5-3 win October 1 that helped Texas maintain control of the division.

“He threw 18 pitches in total”, Johnson said.

History was not on Toronto’s side going into Sunday’s game. Donaldson was greeted with a chorus of boos from Rangers fans, who apparently read lips during his dustup with reliever Keone Kela in the 13th inning of Game 2 that Texas won 6-4 in the 14th.

So, Price had two “ups” Sunday.

The following inning, a home run from Jose Bautista made it a 4-3 game after crushing the ball 435 feet in left center. “It’s definitely not a hundred percent – I said that at the beginning of the series, but good enough to go, good enough to play”.

It’s like that old line about saving an arm for the tournament final… and losing in the semifinal. I kind of told of myself, ‘hey, you’ve been doing this all year. “My body bounces back well”.

Edwin Encarnacion’s run-scoring infield single cut the deficit in half in the fourth – the first run Toronto scored off Gallardo in three meetings this season. In that time they had hit into 4 rally killing double plays.

“I had a good pitch to hit and finally put a good swing on one”, Tulowitzki said. Tulo drove in the 2nd run of the game by drawing a walk from Martin Perez with the bases loaded. Donaldson is 6-for-20 vs. Holland in his career with two doubles, two homers and three walks.

“The guy just thinks unlike anybody else”, Estrada said. “He gave us six-plus innings and he was pounding the strike zone”.

Kevin Pillar followed with a grounder to first, but Martin was safe at second on an errant throw by Mitch Moreland.

Tulowitzki would provide the decisive moment in the sixth, blasting a three-run homer off Chi Chi Gonzalez.

Odor scored after a sacrifice fly by Hanser Alberto, but the Blue Jays scored twice in the same inning to tie the game at 3-3. With first base open, he was trying to be cautious and bury the ball on a 3-2 count but said it got away from him.