Royals start Volquez, Blue Jays go with Estrada in ALCS

Colabello’s single, which snapped a streak of 10 2/3 hitless innings by Royals pitching, was the first ALCS hit by a Blue Jay since Paul Molitor tripled in Game 6 of the 1993 ALCS against the White Sox.

Toronto baseball fans can catch the Blue Jays’ AL Championship Series on a bigger TV screen at Nathan Phillips Square for Game 1 Friday night in Kansas City. The victory saw their hashtag trend No. 1 worldwide on Twitter.

It was Volquez whose inside pitching drew the ire of the Blue Jays in early August, eventually leading to a pair of bench-clearing incidents during their game at Rogers Centre.

Estrada was solid in Toronto’s win in Game 3 of their AL Division Series against Texas.

There was more bad news for the Jays when designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion couldn’t finish the game after reinjuring his hand during an earlier at-bat. “We appreciate the response of the local authorities and the Blue Jays stadium operations staff in identifying, ejecting and — in a few cases — arresting the offenders”. “I really do truly look forward to, not only next season, but the next couple of years….”

The former Cy Young victor has a shaky playoff record, and wasn’t particularly good in his start against the Rangers.

“We will discuss comprehensive security plans for upcoming postseason games in Toronto and reiterate the importance of fans observing the appropriate code of conduct”, Major League Baseball said. Ben Zobrist then got on via an infield hit before Hosmer’s double off the wall scored Escobar and Morales’ sacrifice fly made it 5-0. But the Royals paid close attention to the Jays slugger, who struck out once and walked three times.

The Royals have been memorializing Kansas City firefighters Larry Leggio and John Mesh, who were killed while responding to an apartment building fire this week.

The series matches the American League’s top teams, with the Royals (95-67) and Jays (93-69) finishing 1-2 in the standings.

They met once before in the ALCS, with the Royals rallying from a 3-1 deficit in the first year of seven-game series.

The Jays outscored the Royals by 167 runs during the regular season (891 to 724), which is the largest margin ever by one team over its LCS opponent according to Elias Sports. The last of those games Wednesday was as tense as they come. Kansas City went on to defeat St. Louis for its only World Series title.