Still in the game
Toronto’s 5-1 victory staves off playoff elimination, but three more wins needed
Toronto Blue Jays’ Ezequiel Carrera hits a triple Tuesday against the Cleveland Indians. Jays staved off elimination in the American League Championship Series with a 5-1 win.
TORONTO — Aaron Sanchez pitched six strong innings and the Toronto bats finally woke up as the Blue Jays staved off playoff elimination Tuesday with a 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series.
Four Toronto pitchers limited the Indians to two hits.
The Jays still face three more do-or-die games, two in Cleveland, if they are to survive the best-of-seven series, and history is against them. Since the introduction of the best-of-seven format in 1985, only one of 31 teams have rallied from an 0-3 deficit to win the ALCS (Boston, 2004).
“They were nice, loose, and relaxed, well aware of the circumstances,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons of his team. “They showed up today like they always do and played a good ballgame. Started out with Sanchez, great out in the bullpen, bullpen has been pitching really good, nice little roll, too. Then Donaldson’s big home run to get us on the board, we’ve been looking on that. Then some add-on runs, Carrera, a nice night. A lot of good things today.”
On the plus side for Toronto, the injury-riddled Cleveland starting rotation is not deep. Game 5 goes Wednesday with Marco Estrada against Indians rookie Ryan Merritt.
After scoring just three runs in the first three games, the Toronto offence got out of first gear in a game that was a mirror image of the previous three. This time Toronto outpitched Cleveland and got the timely hits.
Josh Donaldson homered for Toronto and Edwin Encarnacion drove in a pair of runs before a sellout of 49,142 under the roof at the Rogers Centre that finally had something to cheer about.
Donaldson also delivered some stellar defence.
Toronto, which totalled 17 hits in the first three games, outhit Cleveland 9-2.
The loss snapped the Indians’ nine-game win streak dating back to the regular season and Cleveland’s franchise-record run of six straight post-season victories.
The Jays, leading for the first time in the series, picked up solo runs in the third and fourth, two more in the seventh and one in the eighth to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Sanchez (1-0), inducing a string of Cleveland groundouts, gave up just one hit in his first four innings before yielding a run in the fifth when he threw 25 pitches.
The 24-year-old right-hander, whose arm has been closely monitored in his first year as a starter after pitching in the bullpen, was well rested having last pitched Oct. 9 — his first career postseason start.
He gave up one run on two hits with two walks and five strikeouts in a 95-pitch performance that featured 54 strikes.
“You can see the velocity, everybody sees that,” said Indians manager Terry Francona. “But right from the very first inning he commanded his breaking ball. Because we actually had a decent amount of hitters counts. But he has breaking ball going, like I said, right from the beginning, and that made it really, really tough on us.”
Brett Cecil, Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna delivered equally solid work in relief. The loud crowd was on its feet as Osuna mowed the Indians down in order in the ninth with nine strikes in 10 pitches.
Kluber, the 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner, was pitching on three days rest for the first time in 135 career starts. He lasted five innings, giving up two runs on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in an 89-pitch outing that included 59 strikes.
Given he is down as the Indians Game 7 pitcher, if needed, manager Terry Francona was loath to work him longer than necessary.
It was tight opening with little conceded. Cleveland got a man on third with one out in the third but Sanchez escaped thanks to a pair of ground balls.
After two strikeouts by Kluber in bottom of the third, Donaldson hammered a 2-2 ball 402 feet to left-centre field. That ended Kluber’s franchise-record streak of 16 scoreless post-season innings. Encarnacion almost immediately added to the total with a 374-foot fly ball caught by a jumping Lonnie Chisenhall in right field.
Kluber (2-1) issued back-to-back walks to open the Jays’ half of the fourth. One strikeout later, Ezequiel Carrera’s bloop single to centre scored Troy Tulowitzki for a 2-0 lead. Kluber struck out two more to end the inning but the damage was done.
A one-out walk to Coco Crisp proved costly for the Jays in the fifth when, one out later, No. 9 hitter Roberto Perez doubled him home to cut the lead to 2-1. A glittering fielding play by Donaldson, snaring a rocket that left Carlos Santana’s bat at 102 m.p.h., snuffed out the threat and the third baseman left the field pumping his first.
Donaldson also made a nice catch in foul territory in the sixth, twisting his body to see the ball.
Toronto came into the do-or-die game in desperate need of offence. In the first three games of the series, the Jays hit .177 and struck out 34 times. Toronto had left 19 men on base and was hitting 1for-11 with runners in scoring position.
“They’ve been making some big pitches,” Gibbons, speaking prior to the game, said of the Indians.
Cleveland’s pitching staff boasted a playoff-best 1.67 ERA going into the game. Toronto was No. 2 at 2.81.
The Jays’ power failure had been noticeable. Toronto came into the series leading all playoff teams with 10 home runs. But the Indians had four homers to the Jays’ one in the first three games.