Like many of us expected, the Rangers-Blue Jays ALDS is heading back to Arlington as a 2-0 series. But it’s not the heavily favored Blue Jays winning – it’s the Rangers. Texas beat Toronto 6-4 in 14 innings on Friday to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.
Game 2 immediately got off to a hairy start for both sides. Marcus Stroman allowed a leadoff double to Delino DeShields Jr, and DeShields scored on an RBI single from Shin-Soo Choo one batter later. After Prince Fielder singled to move Choo up to third, the Rangers got their second run after Mitch Moreland his a grounder to Chris Colabello. Colabello threw home, and Russell Martin got Choo in a rundown…but his throw to Josh Donaldson at third was wild, allowing Choo to come home and make it 2-0. A Josh Hamilton double play, assisted by some sloppy Fielder baserunning, ended the inning, but the damage was done.
The Jays answered in the first against Cole Hamels, and it was MVP candidate Josh Donaldson who did the damage, hitting a cruise missile of a homer to dead center, slicing the Texas lead to 2-1.
But once again, the Rangers would respond. In the second, Rougned Odor led off with a single, moved to third on a ground out (yes, he moved up two bases on a ball that didn’t leave the infield), and scored on a sac fly by Hansel Alberto, in the lineup for the injured Adrian Beltre.
After Odor’s single, Stroman calmed down. He retired the final three batters of the second inning, and set the Rangers offense down in order in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. In the sixth, Stroman set down the first two hitters before allowing a walk and a single. He struck out Josh Hamilton to end the inning, and came out for the seventh to record another 1-2-3 inning.
While Stroman was doing his thing, the Blue Jays offense began to awaken. In the third, Troy Tulowitzki reached on an error by Alberto, and Colabello followed up with a ground rule double to put men on second and third with none out. Martin singled off the right field wall to make it 3-2, and a double play grounder by Kevin Pillar scored Colabello to tie the game.
The game was stuck at 3-3 until the fifth, when Pillar struck again, leading off the frame with a double against Hamels. Ryan Goins bunted him over to third, and Ben Revere drove Pillar home with a single off of his former Phillies teammate.
That 4-3 lead would hold up until the eighth, when Jays manager John Gibbons sent Stroman out to start the inning. DeShields singled to lead off the inning, and Gibbons replaced Stroman with Brett Cecil. Choo bunted Deshields to second, and after Cecil struck Fielder out, it looked like Toronto would be able to escape unscathed. But pinch hitter Mike Napoli singled to right, scoring DeShields and knotting the game at four.
Of course, the contest would move into extra innings and turned into a battle of the bullpens. Each team had their opportunities – Toronto had Revere on second with one out in the bottom of the eighth, and couldn’t score. Texas put two on with one out in the 11th, and couldn’t score. Toronto got a leadoff single in the 12th, and did nothing with it.
Then in the 14th, the Rangers finally cashed in. Veteran LaTroy Hawkins was on the hill for the Blue Jays, and simply didn’t have it. After a pair of lineouts to lead off the inning, Odor struck again with an infield single. Catcher Chris Gimenez singled to move Odor to second, resulting in a controversial replay challenge after Odor seemed to come off the bag (but the safe call on the field was upheld.).
Alberto, the substitute for Beltre, singled home Odor to make it a 5-4 game. Liam Hendriks replaced Hawkins, and allowed a run-scoring infield single to DeShields, increasing the Rangers’ lead to 6-4. Ross Ohlendorf struck out Tulowitzki and Justin Smoak to start the bottom of the inning, plunked Martin, and whiffed Pillar to end the game and pick up the save.
Both starters pitched relatively well, settling down after some early struggles. Hamels allowed four runs (two earned) on six hits in seven innings, walking none and striking out six. Stroman also went seven, giving up four runs (three earned) on five hits, walking two and striking out five. And both bullpens also did their jobs quite well – until the Blue Jays fell apart in the 14th, that is. The Texas pen went seven, gave up two hits, walked a pair, and punched out nine. Including the Hawkins meltdown, Toronto’s pen went seven, gave up two runs on six hits, walked two, and struck out five.
Delino DeShields Jr was the offensive star again for Texas. He went 3/7 on the afternoon, doubling, scoring two runs, and driving in one Rangers run. Odor also scored a pair of runs in six plate appearances for the Rangers, while Alberto knocked in two. For the Blue Jays, Colabello and Revere each had two hits, while Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Tulowitzki combined to go 1/16 with two walks and a run scored. Yes, Toronto’s lineup is loaded from top to bottom, but the heart of the order has to show up a little bit. Minus Bautista’s home run in Game 1 and some deep fly balls over the last two days, that hasn’t happened.
The Rangers can finish off their sweep (which isn’t something I expected to be typing a few days ago) on Sunday. Game 3 starts at 8 PM at Globe Life Park, and the Rangers and Blue Jays will send Martin Perez and Marco Estrada to the hill, respectively. It’s hard to imagine this Blue Jays team going down without even on win, but we’re dangerously close to that happening.
