KANSAS, Mo. – The Toronto Blue Jays ran out of playoff lives Friday, exiting the post-season as the Kansas City Royals gutted out a tense 4-3 victory to win the American League Championship series four games to two.
Jose Bautista was a one-man wrecking crew for Toronto in a playoff thriller driving in three runs with a pair of homers included a two-run shot in the eighth inning that tied it at 3-3 when the Jays were down to their last five outs.
Kansas City shortstop Alcides Escobar was unanimously selected the ALCS MVP.
But the Royals answered with a run to end Toronto’s season and then held off the Jays in a nail-biting ninth.
There was drama aplenty before a jacked-up Kauffman Stadium crowd of 40,494, including a 45-minute rain delay midway through the eighth.
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When the game resumed, Toronto closer Roberto Osuna was on the mound. The 20-year-old phenom had been lights out most of the season but he walked Lorenzo Cain, who came home on Eric Hosmer’s ensuing single for a 4-3 lead. Kendrys Morales singled to put men on first and second.
A double play ended the inning but the damage was done.
Russell Martin singled off closer Wade Davis to open the ninth. Dalton Pompey came on as a pinch-runner and promptly stole second and then third.
Kevin Pillar worked an eight-pitch walk and stole second, removing the double play opportunity as pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro struck out. Davis then struck out Ben Revere, leaving MVP candidate Josh Donaldson as the Jays’ final out and Bautista on deck.
Donaldson, 0 for 4 on the night, grounded out to third in a tense at-bat to end the evening, leaving men on second and third.
For a while it looked like Bautista might rescue Toronto for a second series.
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His three-run homer in the seventh inning of Game 5 – marked with a signature bat flip – proved to be the difference as the Jays defeated the Texas Rangers 6-3 to win the series.
The game was played 22 years to the day that Joe Carter’s walk-off home run against Phillies reliever Mitch Williams gave Toronto its second straight World Series title.
Bautista did his best to channel Carter this night.
His solo blast 428 feet in the fourth cut the Royals’ lead to 2-1. Then, with Toronto down to five outs, he slammed a two-run shot 387 feet that tied the game at 3-3.
There was no bat flip this time. He gently dropped the bat, with more work left to do.
It was Toronto’s fifth must-win game of the playoffs and it proved to be one too many for the AL East champions, ending a remarkable season that saw the Jays reload at the trade deadline and dominate after the all-star break.
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But they could not dethrone the Royals, who ultimately won with timely hitting from a deep, diverse offence and a better bullpen.
Kansas City claimed its second straight AL pennant – and the fourth in franchise history – while earning a date with the waiting New York Mets in the World Series. The Royals lost the Series in seven games to San Francisco last year.
Ben Zobrist and Mike Moustakas homered for Kansas City. The Royals added an insurance run in the seventh.
Yordano Ventura and Kansas City’s bullpen held Toronto to seven hits.
The Royals had seemed in control after collecting an insurance run in the seventh inning and with its much-vaunted bullpen up and running.
FOX certainly through so. With Kansas City up 3-1, the broadcaster flashed a graphic during the seventh inning that pre-emptively advertised the Royals playing the Mets on Tuesday in Game 1 of the World Series. The graphic pictured Kansas City’s Hosmer and New York’s Daniel Murphy on opposite sides, with the time of the game in between them.
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But Ryan Madson walked Revere to open the eighth and, after Josh Donaldson struck out, Bautista sent the ball deep to left.
It was Bautista’s fourth homer of the playoffs, setting a franchise single post-season.
Bautista also tied a franchise record with his fourth straight playoff game with an RBI.
The Jays got Edwin Encarncion to second after the Bautista homer but could not advance him further.
Toronto ace David Price gave up both Kansas City home runs, tying the major-league record for most playoff games allowing two or more homers with four, joining Jaret Wright and Tom Glavine, according to Sportsnet Stats.
Price settled down as the game wore on, putting in a fine shift only to get limited help from his offence.
Aaron Sanchez came in for Price with one on and two outs in the seventh. No. 9 hitter Alex Rios greeted him by singling Moustakas home for an insurance run that made it 3-1.
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The Jays had refused to quit after falling behind 0-2 in both the ALDS, against Texas, and the ALCS. They won three straight to oust the Rangers in the best-of-five ALDS and then Game 5 against the Royals to cut the deficit to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
Toronto won the first four must-win games by a combined score of 26-9. The Jays were outscored 44-23 in the other six contests, going 1-5.
Ventura went 5 1/3 solid innings, exiting after an Edwin Encarnacion one-out double. The 24-year-old Dominican right-hander, who bristled all evening, pointed to the sky as he left the mound to an ovation following a four-hit, 77-pitch outing. He struck out five and walked two.
Kelvin Herrera cleaned up the sixth inning, striking out Chris Colabello with a 100 m.p.h. fastball and getting Troy Tulowitzki to fly out. Toronto went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position over the first six innings.
Ventura was dialled in early. He threw 20 pitches in the first inning, with 17 strikes.
“If he’s commanding his breaking ball he’s going to be extremely tough tonight,” manager Ned Yost said prior to the game.
Revere hit Ventura’s third delivery into right field for a double but the Royals starter retired the next 10 Jays. He threw 33 pitches with 26 strikes in the first three innings. Revere’s hit was the Jays’ first of the series in the first inning.
Zobrist, meanwhile, hammered Price’s sixth delivery 372 feet into the Kansas City bullpen for a solo homer. One inning later, Moustakas went 390 feet to right-centre to make it 2-0.
The Jays asked for a review of the play, arguing that the fan who caught the ball had reached into the field of play with his glove, making it a fan interference double. But the video review confirmed the Moustakas home run.
Local media reported the fan was 18-year-old Caleb Humphreys.
The Kansas City Star reported Humphreys did not think he had reached into the field of play to snag the ball. But he admitted “I was praying” during the video review.
Bautista took matters into his own hands in the fourth, slamming a one-out homer 428 feet high over the right-field fence to cut the lead to 2-1. The blast ended Ventura’s run of 10 straight outs.
Umpire Jeff Nelson had to wave Ventura to the dugout after the Royals pitcher, following his strikeout of Tulowitzki to end the inning, glared at the Jays shortstop.
While Ventura showed some nerves as the game wore on, Price settled down. In the fourth he struck out the side. But the Jays were unable to provide him much offence.
Martin and Pillar walked to open the fifth but Ventura kept it together, inducing Ryan Goins and Revere to fly out before Moustakas made an acrobatic grab to rob Donaldson of a hit in an inning that should have produced more for the Jays.
Revere made a spectacular leaping catch in the seventh off Salvador Perez, denying a home run or shot off the wall.
Price gave up three runs on five hits and struck out eight in a 99-pitch outing. He walked two and left trailing 3-1.
Both his post-season wins were out of the bullpen, in 2008 in Tampa and in Game 4 of the ALDS in relief of R.A. Dickey.
“I guess I have to prove that I can pitch at this point in the season in the playoffs,” Price told reporters Thursday. “I get that. But I don’t have to go out there and prove that I’m a good pitcher. I think I’ve done that over the seven years of my career.”
Price, who won the AL Cy Young Award in 2012, was 18-5 with a 2.45 ERA this season including 9-1 with a 2.30 ERA with the Jays.
The Jays, who rallied from an 0-2 hole to down Texas in the best-of-five ALDS, were trying to become just the third team to overcome multiple 0-2 deficits in a single post-season, according to Elias Sports. The Dodgers (1981) and Royals (1985 when they trailed the Blue Jays in the ALCS) both did it.
Teams with a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series have now advanced 68 out of 80 times.
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