Five-run seventh rallies Royals past Blue Jays

Johnny Cueto delivered a masterpiece on his biggest stage yet, pitching eight dominant innings Wednesday night and leading the resilient Kansas City Royals to a 7-2 victory over the Houston Astros and back to the American League Championship Series.

Volquez combined with three relievers on a three-hitter and Salvador Perez hit a soaring home run off Toronto starter Marco Estrada.

After the Goins double, another Blue Jay didn’t reach second against Ventura until the sixth. After a first-pitch single surrendered to Alcides Escobar, the 30-year-old lefthander pitched like, well, like the Cy Young victor he is.

It was the start of a five-run inning for Kansas City.

Toronto went ahead 1-0 on back-to-back doubles by Pillar and Goins to open the third, ending a 12-inning scoreless drought.

Javier Baez singled to left with one out and Castro tried to score but was thrown out easily by Yoenis Cespedes despite an off-line throw to the first-base side of home plate.

“We just needed to catch a break”, said Mike Moustakas, who was hitting.

Zobrist should know a thing or two about Price.

Price faced seven men in the inning.

Tonight David Price will take the mound for Toronto after snapping his winless postseason streak in the previous series. After escaping with that lucky bounce, Donaldson hit an infield single, then scored. A 2 – 3 – 2 format does have a lot to do with both the Royals and Mets as underdogs.

“The key to that whole inning, believe it or not, was Hosmer stealing second base”.

After Kendrys Morales swung through the next pitch, Kuntz thought the ideal time to run on Price had arrived. Or, this team might need to refine their approach at the plate against the Royals. Somehow, resistance was not futile, at least not for the Royals.

If any of the first six hitters they sent to the plate in the seventh on Saturday had whiffed, they don’t come back to win the game.

For six brilliant innings, David Price climbed to the mountaintop and silenced the cynics who had harped on his past post-season doldrums. It was unfortunate. You really can’t pitch a better game to that point.

The Singles Train loaded up at the station. A Lorenzo Cain single, opposite field. Hosmer scored the tying run.

The inevitability of a rally felt preordained.

In Tulowitzki, we’re obviously left to speculate that his shoulder injury is effecting him more than he is letting on.

Moustakas added to Kansas City’s lead with a single to right to drive in Cain in the eighth. “Price was pitching unbelievable”. He encountered trouble in the third inning, which led to two runs. He threw 90 pitches, 64 for strikes. Now the Blue Jays enter Game 2 still looking to score their first run of the series. “I saw him call me off, so I peeled off”. In the heart of the zone, Gordon capitalized upon the mistake, pulling a liner to the gap in right-center.

The five-run Royals rally started with the kind of misplay you expect to see in Little League, not the ALCS.

It was a monumental collapse for Price, who had at one point recorded 18 straight outs.

In the seventh, Price, who is winless in seven career postseason starts, and the Blue Jays became unraveled.

Herrera went fastball, changeup, curveball to Encarnacion, getting the Jays’ designated hitter swinging on the rarely proffered breaking ball. Jays’ catcher Russell Martin referred to it as “the Bermuda triangle”. It’s not why this team is in an 0-2 hole.

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

Fortunately, Hosmer worked a walk, and Morales followed with one of his own. They got to a full count and after Gordon fouled off a 96-mph fastball right down the middle, Price came back with another one that was lashed into the gap in right-centre for an RBI double, giving the Royals the lead.

Wade Davis survived a shaky ninth for Kansas City after Luke Hochevar and Danny Duffy were solid in relief of Yordano Ventura.

Cyborgs are not programmed for worry, nor do they get angry when done an injustice. All three of the Royals wins in this series were comeback wins with the go-ahead runs scoring no earlier than the fifth inning.

Possible AL MVP Josh Donaldson stepped into the box. Game 2 is at 4 p.m. Saturday in KC and will air on Fox Sports 1. It might have disappeared from this temporal plane for a second.

There was no bat flip or winning blast from Jose Bautista. Lester threw 27 of 44 pitches for strikes.

And when the game was over, Toronto lost 6-3 to Kansas City to fall behind the Royals 0-2 in the ALCS.

Toronto hopes the left-hander can flash his regular-season form as it attempts to even the best-of-seven series after falling 5-0 in Friday’s opener.