Estrada, Toronto Blue Jays fall in AL championship series opener

Kansas City Royals staring pitcher Yordano Ventura, left, celebrates with shortstop Alcides Escobar after Escobar made a diving catch to turn a double play against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning in Game 2 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Saturday, October 17, 2015, in Kansas City, Mo.

In the fifth, Ventura went through the 8-9-1 spots in the Jays’ lineup easily, spending just a dozen pitches, the last his 66th pitch of the night.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays built him a 3-0 lead. Six batters later, the Royals had turned the tables on Price’s dominance and had taken a two-run lead.

“I gave up hits at the wrong time”, he said. With almost 40,000 Kansas City fans screaming at him, Goins was chasing a pop-up when he thought he heard a scrap on the wind: I Got It. Except, he didn’t.

Edinson Volquez has been looking for that elusive first postseason victory. The game started with the mound in the sun and the box in the shade, and by the sixth inning, it was all shaded up. They also allow just 2.5 walks per game, the best in the AL.

After Bautista walked, Encarnacion singled to drive in Donaldson. Hosmer arrived safely. After Salvador Perez struck out, Gordon hammered a fastball down the heart of the plate for the go-ahead double.

“They gave me more energy to pitch the way I pitched in that inning”, Volquez said. He was taken out earlier than expected due to his 111 pitch count, which rose because of 23 foul balls. He threw 97 pitches, 60 for strikes. “If it was a normal game he would be in there but we need him and he will battle through it”.

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.

“They got Game 1”, Tulowitzki said, “but it’s no time to press the panic button”. Ben Zobrist popped up the first pitch of the inning into short right field. And then the seventh: the pop fly that fell, the double play that wasn’t, ball after ball that just kept evading Blue Jays. He had retired 18 in a row after a leadoff single in the first inning.

“Always, I swing the first pitch”, Escobar said. “I elevated it a lot more than I wanted to”. “We’re pitching those guys away'”.

Lorenzo Cain is hitting.

Estrada got two strikeouts in the fourth before Perez hit a 392-foot homer over the left-field wall.

The Royals padded their lead in the eighth with an Eric Hosmer double scoring Escobar, who was hit by a LaTroy Hawkins pitch to lead off the inning.

“One small mistake opened the door for them”, said Toronto right fielder Jose Bautista, tight-lipped and clearly angry. “Ryan’s made a lot of big plays for us”. “I will try to do the best I can do. That’s baseball, a game of inches”.

But remember that Shields started the ALCS opener a year ago in Baltimore, and was knocked out in the sixth inning as the Royals saw a 5-1 lead evaporate.

As for Encarnacion, Gibbons said before the game had it not been a postseason game, the designated hitter would have sat out.

“I think I had a chance and I was running to it”, said Bautista. “That’s just the way it goes sometimes”, Colabello said.

“Volquez picked his spots obviously”. We noticed that in BP. He kind of mixed it up. 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.

Without Cecil, Price is the only left-hander. It was never going to be easy for Toronto to cruise into the World Series, even though they dominated their opponents so thoroughly late in the season.