(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Rangers open ALDS with win in Toronto
Nederlands
 TORONTO, Ontario (Canada) -
The Texas Rangers opened the best-of-five American League Division Series on Thursday (October 8) with a 5-3 victory at the Toronto Blue Jays.
Game 2 will be played on Friday.
In the other ALDS, the Kansas City Royals meet Wild Card-winner Houston Astros.
The Rangers last played in the World Series in 2011, but then lost 4-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The last time that the Blue Jays played in the World Series was in 1993 when it won its second consecutive championship-title.
Toronto won vs. Atlanta Braves in 1992, then vs. Philadelphia Phillies in 1993.
This season, Texas was 88-74 and won the American League West Division-title on the final day of the regular season.
It was the sixth AL-West championship for the Rangers and the first since 2011.
Last season, the Rangers had the worst record in the American League (67-95).
The Rangers traveled to Canada with 30 players.
The final 25-man roster had to be handed in before 10 AM this morning and that meant that five players didn't made the ALDS-roster.
Included on the final Texas-roster are five players who are younger than 24, the youngest of them being 21-year old Rougned Odor.
In its previous six trips to the postseason, the Rangers had only three players who were younger than 24.
The youngest of them was Jurickson Profar, who was only 19 when he got a pinch-hitt appearance on October 5, 2012.
Profar, who played for the Netherlands National Baseball Team in the semi-final of the World Baseball Classic 2013, will not see any action this time.
The infielder is recovering from an injury.
Because of that, he missed the entire 2014 and 2015 season.
Toronto Blue Jays closed the regular season with a 93-69 record and captured the title in the American League East Division.
And with that, the Canadian team now plays in its first postseason since 1993.
For 53-year old Manager John Gibbons, this is his first postseason.
He already led the Blue Jays in 2004-2008, but then was dismissed.
Gibbons returned as Manager of the Blue Jays in 2013, but that season wasn't successful, mainly due to several injuries.
But now, two years later, the Blue Jays are back in the Play-Offs after 22 years.
...José Bautista homered for Toronto...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Texas Rangers is led by 51-year old Jeff Banister, who is in his first season as Manager in the Major League.
Banister played in only one Major League-game himself.
That came in 1991 when he was 1-for-1 as a pinch-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Banister was active in the Pittsburgh-organization for 29 years, including playing in seven minor league-seasons.
He then went on coaching thereafter and was the Bench Coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates the last four years, before being named Manager of Texas in October 2014.
While the game started at 3:30 PM local time, the roof at Rogers Centre (formerly known as the Skydome) was closed, as light rain was expected in the early evening, which might have effected the late innings.
For the record, the Blue Jays were 11-14 this season with the roof closed and 38-14 with the roof open.
The Rangers opened the score in the third inning off of David Price.
The lefthander came to Toronto on July 30 in a trade with the Detroit Tigers.
He was 9-4 with the Tigers, then 9-1 for the Blue Jays in the remainder of the season.
With that, he became only the third pitcher in history to have won at least nine games for two different teams in the same league in the same season.
In the third inning, Venezuelan lead-off hitter Rougned Odor was hit by a pitch, then advanced on a grounder by fellow-Venezuelan Robinson Chirinos
Moments later, Odor scored the first run on a single by Delino DeShields.
The latter then also advanced on a grounder, this time by Korean Shin-Soo Choo.
DeShields scored the second Texas-run on a single by Adrian Beltre, who clearly had back-problems while running to first base.
When the Rangers took the field in the bottom of the third inning, the Dominican third baseman and powerhitter left the game with lower back stiffness.
He had hurt himself trying to break up a double play in the first inning.
Texas-starter Yovani Gallardo retired the first nine batters he faced.
But in the bottom of the fourth inning, the Blue Jays not only reached base off of the Mexican righthander, they also scored.
Ben Revere led off with a single, then Josh Donaldson walked.
The latter was forced out on a grounder by José Bautista, but that also put runners on first and third base.
An infield-hit by Dominican Edwin Encarnacion then brought in Revere to make it a 2-1 score.
In the top of the fifth, the Rangers took more distance and again it was the Venezualan duo of Odor and Chirinos, who were reponsible.
Odor led off and was hit by a pitch from Price for the second time.
He then scored when Chirinos followed with a homerun to make it a 4-1 score.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Blue Jays got back into the game again.
Russell Martin led of with a double, moved on a grounder, then scored on a double by Kevin Pillar, narrowing the deficit to 4-2.
The latter then advanced to third base on another grounder.
But he was left behind when the inning ended on a grounder by Ezequiel Carrera, who batted for Josh Donaldson, who also had to leave the game.
In the regular season, Donaldson hit 41 homeruns and batted in 123 runs.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, while being forced out on second base, Donaldson was hit on his head by the knee of second baseman Rougned Odor, who tried to complete a double play.
After he had played defensively in the top of the fifth, Donaldson was replaced out of precaution when he had to bat moments later.
And with that, both All Star third basemen had to leave the game early.
The Blue Jays made it an one-run difference score (4-3) in the bottom of the sixth inning when José Bautista led off with a homerun off of Keone Kela, who had just taken over for starter Yovani Gallardo.
For Bautista, this was his first postseason-game after having played in the Major League since 2004 (playing in 1403 games).
However, Texas immediately answered with a run of its own, as Rougned Odor homered in the seventh with one out to make it 5-3.
(October 8)
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