Late inning rally gives Kansas City Royals 2-0 lead in ALCS

KC had managed only one hit against Toronto starter David Price through six innings. And no bat flip or winning blast from Jose Bautista.

The odds tilted heavily to the Royals after their come-from-behind victory Saturday over the Toronto Blue Jays.

He suggested that hitters were able to see the ball better once shadows dimmed the late-afternoon glare off the center-field backdrop around the sixth inning. The two comebacks featured a combined 11 hits, only one for extra bases – Alex Gordon’s go-ahead double that knocked out Price.

“It’s a very scrappy team”, Price said.

But Encarnacion is ailing thanks to a problem with his left middle finger, and Volquez froze him with strike three. Kuntz said afterward that his own call was more lucky than good, reasoning that Morales easily could have lined into a double play. “So we’ll see how he is tomorrow”.

After Bautista walked, Encarnacion singled to drive in Donaldson. Reliever Luke Hochevar escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam and kept the Royals within striking distance.

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.

Toronto starter Marco Estrada (1-1) led the majors by holding opposition batters to hitting. A fluke hit by Ben Zobrist had started their seventh-inning rally from a 3-0 deficit. And he was heavily involved in the team’s last meeting, an ill-tempered affair August. 2 in Toronto that saw three ejections in a 5-2 Jays’ win.

And for six innings, he was right. The game was also the first win for head coach Mike Babcock, who joined the team earlier this year.

But the Royals cashed in when Alex Gordon opened the bottom of the third with a double and, one out later, Alcides Escobar drove him in with another double to right. He had to wait all of about a moment before Lorenzo Cain singled him home.

Cain extended his post-season hit streak to 10 games, one off the franchise record (Amos Otis, 1978-80). “That allowed us to get to a point we could score five runs, that was huge”. 84 runs. Playoff baseball shouldn’t be any different than the regular season, either; the boundaries are the same, the men the same, the game the same. Then Hosmer singled on a down-and-away pitch, scoring Zobrist and putting runners on first and third.

The Royals should have their hands full, too, with Stroman, the 24-year-old righthander who made a speedy return from a torn left knee ligament in March and excelled down the stretch. Volquez threw two called strikes, the second a fastball that sliced the outside corner in half and left Tulowitzki looking as though he needed a stiff drink and fast.

“We’re both probably outnumbered in town here, but I told him I love his politics”, Gibbons said then. The three of them would get five plate appearances against Price and Toronto’s only lefty reliever, Aaron Loup, in the seventh and eighth innings. But overall he didn’t give up a lot of hits. “I gave them that play to start that rally”. “We can’t focus on him tonight because everybody got shut down, really”.

And now Ben Zobrist was on after Ryan Goins pulled away from what looked like a harmless pop-up, the kind that when it goes up, the pitcher, the dugout, the manager and the pitching coach breathe a sign of relief.

The Royals paid close attention to Bautista, who struck out once and walked three times.

The best-of-seven series switches back to Toronto on Monday when Marcus Stroman and Rangers ace Johnny Cueto face off in Game 3 of the best-of-seven series at Rogers Centre. “They keep going”, said Kansas City manager Ned Yost.

Since 1985, teams that have won the second game in the ALCS have advanced to the World Series in 23 of 29 series (79 percent).

The Mets and Cubs get a day off before playing Game 3 of the NL Championship Series at Wrigley Field.

Price’s earned-run average is 7.02 ERA this post-season, compared to 2.30 in the regular season with Toronto.

At the time, it appeared the tiniest of openings -€“ the second Royals hit off Price, and not much of a hit at that. Kansas City went on to defeat St. Louis for its only World Series title.