Donaldson leaves playoff game after taking knee to head

If a deciding game is required, it will be played Wednesday at Rogers Centre.

The underdog Rangers struck from an unlikely source. “What’s really interesting is that I think the jump from the ALDS to the ALCS will be kind of small compared to if they do make the World Series”.

Donaldson cleared all concussion tests and will be evaluated again Friday morning.

The Rangers will begin the pitcher whose exchange due date procurement was urgent to Texas winning the West. Cole Hamels ran 7-1 with a 3.66 ERA subsequent to coming to Texas.

Right fielder Jose Bautista hit a solo homer for the Blue Jays. Be it in the unlikely position of a one-game wild card spot or as division winners, there is not a team out there that wants to face David Price and have to throw strikes to Joey Bats, Encarnacion, Tulo and J-Don (I thought of that one myself).

Hard-throwing Sam Dyson pitched the ninth for Texas, hitting 98 m.p.h. Both Donaldson and Bautista are expected to be ready for Game 2. He went 9-1 in 11 starts for Toronto with a 2.30 ERA to solidify his status as the AL Cy Young favorite.

“I’ll try to start another streak next year, if that’s possible”, Buehrle said.

Beltre, injured sliding into second base in the first inning, left after the third with what was called lower back stiffness. “We told him we had his back”. The big man settled down in the second inning, striking out the side.

Price hit Odor with a pitch for the second straight at-bat, and Chirinos homered for a 4-1 lead.

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the third. He was replaced by Hanser Alberto. The injury would carry a price for the Rangers.

It wasn’t exactly a storybook ending to the regular season for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Toronto’s Ben Revere singled to open the fourth to get the crowd going. He has 16 strikeouts in his past two starts covering 13 2/3 innings.

Chirinos put the Rangers ahead 4-1 with a home run to left in the fifth after Odor was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game.

The Blue Jays scored in the fifth on doubles by Martin and center fielder Kevin Pillar. Exactly how high a value that injury was won’t be completely known until the Rangers focus when he can come back to play. Toronto went 40-18 and Texas 38-22 since the start of August. It was the seventh time in eight years that they have won the season series with the Jays.

The Texas Rangers lost 95 games and completed in last place in 2014.

The Rangers are back in the postseason as the AL West Champs. And there was another tie to the glory days with the Canadian anthem – a recording of the late Michael Burgess from the 1992 World Series played as members of the military manned a giant Canadian flag in the outfield. Despite his media background and the analysis he gives, his videos still capture all the raw joy and frustration that came with being a Toronto sports fan.

Now the clamor is on for playoff tickets for Canada’s only major league baseball team.

The Jays bandwagon is stretching far and wide. “(It was) just one of those games, not a lot of hits, they weren’t hitting him around, just a couple key hits”.