Royals rally to beat Blue Jays

Indeed he is. And while it’s true that another subpar October start would not prove Price does not have a few intangible quality that prevents him from performing up to his abilities in the playoffs – he did have a strong eight-inning, tworun post-season start a year ago with Detroit in which he was the losing pitcher – it would also be fair to say that it would throw a considerable shadow over Toronto’s playoff run.

Mike Moustakas hooked a 2-2 change-up into right field. “We’re pitching those guys away'”. “They’d seen his cutters and changeup, and they just fought them off until they found a pitch they could do something with”.

“They were looking for that one crack because David was so good”, manager John Gibbons said. Price was unable to wipe that mistake away, allowing four more hits and five runs without getting out of the inning. “His ball was ducking and darting everywhere”.

Volquez (1-1) ramped up his fastball to 155 kph (97 mph) to slice through the Blue Jays offence, never allowing a runner past second base over six innings.

The Royals’ bullpen finished off the club’s eighth consecutive ALCS victory. “That means I got it. I just didn’t make the play”.

The over/under total for the game has been set at 7.5 runs.

His first start in this series was always going to be plenty intriguing after what happened in Game 1 of the ALDS: five earned runs in seven innings, which brought his record as a playoff starter to 0-6 with a 5.48 ERA. During the regular season, Toronto led the AL with a 79.28 success rate (88-for-111), while the Royals were third at 75.36 percent (104-for-138).

Blue Jays DH Edwin Encarnacion sprained a ligament in his left middle finger on Friday and is questionable for Game 2.2.

Gibbons said it was simply a matter of circumstances, and while he acknowledged Price pitched longer than most people thought he would, “that was a little bit of strategy, too”.

Left-hander David Price totally dominated the Royals for the first six innings, allowing only a leadoff single on his first pitch of the game to shortstop Alcides Escobar.

The teams entered the best-of-seven series with plenty of history. They pulled it out, then clinched the series with a win on Wednesday. More than that, the young Rangers gain unexpected experience heading into 2016 – a year when, unlike the Blue Jays or Royals, the Rangers are assured their newest weapon will be under contract.

Volquez (1-1) was right in the thick of things.

Afterward, Volquez said Donaldson was “crying like a baby” over his inside approach.

The Kansas City crowd of nearly 40,000 at Kauffman Stadium loved it. Volquez walked off the mound to chants of “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie”.

That was the only reason for the packed house to boo, though.

“He had everything going, great fastball… on the attack from the first inning on”.

Hard-throwing Royals right-hander Yordano Ventura hit 98 m.p.h.as he struck out Donaldson in a 1-2-3 first inning.

Harvey hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch to open up the fifth, then gave up a double to center field off the bat of Starlin Castro in the top of the fifth, leading to the first of his two runs. It’s exactly those moments thus far that the Royals HAVE made the most of, whereas the Blue Jays HAVE NOT. He struck out Ben Revere and Josh Donaldson before Jose Bautista then flied out to right to give Davis his third postseason save and the Royals another postseason comeback win.

It was back to baseball for the Blue Jays on Friday, with none of the controversy or side show that accompanied their wild win over Texas two days earlier.

“The key to that whole inning, believe it or not, was Hosmer stealing second base”, Yost said. If you want to blame Goins, go ahead, because he does.