There will be no Division Series sweeps this year. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers 5-1 on Sunday night to cut the Rangers’ ALDS lead to 2-1, ensuring that there will be a Game 4 on Monday afternoon at Globe Life Park.
Both sides got off to slow starts in the first two innings, with each side going down 1-2-3 in the first and second innings. In the third, Dioner Navarro led off with a double for the Jays, scoring on a Ryan Goins double play after a Kevin Pillar infield single moved Navarro up to third. In the bottom of the third inning, Texas couldn’t do anything with a Hanser Alberto ground rule double with two outs. The game would then start to get troublesome for Texas in the fourth.
Josh Donaldson led the frame off with a double, and after Jose Bautista flied out to center, Martin Perez walked both Edwin Encarnacion (intentionally) and Chris Colabello (unintentionally) to load the base for Troy Tulowitzki. Tulowitzki didn’t move his bat once, walking on five pitches to bring in Donaldson and increase the Jays’ lead to 2-0. Navarro ended the threat by grounding into another double play.
The Rangers offense continued to stagnate, going 1-2-3 in the fourth and getting a Josh Hamilton single and nothing else in the fifth. Toronto put another man on in the fifth in the form of Kevin Pillar, who singled, moved up to second on an error, and was bunted to third, but that inning ending with yet another double play, this time off the bat of Ben Revere.
In the sixth, the dam finally broke for the Jays. Donaldson and Bautista singled to start the inning, and Chi Chi Gonzalez replaced Perez on the hill. Gonzalez walked Encarnacion, and then got yet another double play from Colabello. But Tulowitzki picked a great time to collect his first hit of this Postseason, homering over the left field wall to increase Toronto’s lead to 5-0.
That would be more than enough for Marco Estrada, who was a maestro on the mound for Toronto. He allowed a single in the sixth before getting out of the inning with no damage, and gave up two singles in the seventh before being pulled for Aaron Loup. Loup allowed a run to score on a Rougned Odor groundout, but Mark Lowe struck out Robinson Chirinos to end the threat.
Nothing really happened over the final two innings. Tulowitzki singled with two outs in the eighth and didn’t score, and no other hitters reached base for either side. Aaron Sanchez threw a 1-2-3 eighth for the Jays, while Roberto Osuna shut the door in a perfect ninth (despite David Price getting loose in the pen for Toronto).
Estrada finished his night by allowing one run on five hits (four singles) in 6 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking one. Jays pitching didn’t walk a hitter all night compared to five for the Rangers. Perez went five for Texas, giving up four runs on six hits, walking three and striking out a pair.
Offensively, the Rangers turned *four* double plays to help shut down the Jays, who stranded five on the evening. But the bucketload of walks and Tulowitzki’s blast in the sixth were too much to overcome, and the Jays are finally on the board.
Game 4 will be at 4 PM tomorrow in Arlington, with RA Dickey taking the hill for the Jays and Derek Holland going for the Rangers.
The Blue Jays have seemingly woken up – can the Rangers offense wake up and prevent the series from going back to the Great White North?
