Sixth-inning failure a key moment in Blue Jays’ loss

The Toronto Blue Jays had to battle back from an 0-2 deficit and overcome a few controversy in Game 5, but in the end they made it to their first American League Championship Series in 22 years.

Toronto eliminated the Rangers three games to two in the divisional series to reach Major League Baseball’s playoff semi-finals for the first time since they won the 1993 World Series title.

Alcides Escobar hit an RBI double and Lorenzo Cain a run-scoring single to give Kansas City a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Blue Jays after three innings in Game 1.

“They are probably the best team in baseball, at least I’ve seen in the American League, manufacturing runs, ” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. The +18 Texas Rangers pushed the Blue Jays to the brink of elimination before misplaying five straight batted balls in the seventh inning of Game 5.

Toronto’s offense has carried them to just one series win away from the World Series. Volquez did allow four walks, including two to start the sixth, but struck out Edwin Encarnacion before getting Chris Colabello to line out and Troy Tulowitzki to strike out. The umpires were called in when Josh Donaldson got hit with a pitch, and pitcher Edinson Volquez called Donaldson a “little baby” after the game.

After Gibbons was sacked by the Blue Jays in 2008 in his first go-around as their manager, he was hired that October by then-Royals manager Trey Hillman as a bench coach.

Although there might be a tendency to have a heated rival within the division (like the Orioles or Yankees), the Blue Jays biggest rival this season has arguably been the Kansas City Royals.

The Royals lost 4-3 to San Francisco in the 2014 World Series.

That makes falling behind in the series a daunting thought for the Kansas City faithful. The live stream coverage will be on the Fox Sports Go website and the first game of the series starts at 8:07 pm ET and will have Marcos Estrada against Edinson Volquez for the pitching duel. Kansas City has the edge in terms of postseason experience, but it doesn’t look like the pressure is affecting Osuna (5 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 K) or Sanchez (5 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 K) after their stellar ALDS performances against the Rangers.

Only now, it was enough to take him from an ALCS game. “But a team win, that’s what I was looking for”. “We’re going to formulate a really good game plan and try to go out and execute”.

“I think if there was a time for one, that would probably be the one”.

Royals Review: The Blue Jays bullpen seemed to be a weakness early in the year, but mid-season transactions and the emergence of rookie Roberto Osuna has changed that. C Dioner Navarro was in the Blue Jays’ lineup, not C Russell Martin, as he developed into RHP Marco Estrada’s personal catcher….

Heading into this matchup, the home team had been a +135 underdog while Toronto was a -155 favorite.