(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
  Toronto wins dramatic 5th game vs. Texas to move into ALCS!
Nederlands
 TORONTO, Ontario (Canada) -
In a action-packed game full of drama and emotions, the Toronto Blue Jays won 6-3 on Wednesday (October 14) in Game 5 vs. the Texas Rangers to win their American League Division Series 3-2 and moved into the League Championship Series.
Toronto lost the first two games of the series, but then won the next three to win it.
And that's why a best-of-series is so fun to watch and play!
With the win, the Blue Jays now will play in their first American League Championship Series since 1993.
Back then, Toronto played in its third consecutive LCS and fourth in five years.
In 1989, the Blue Jays lost the LCS to the Oakland Athletics.
Another loss followed in 1991 vs. the Minnesota Twins.
But in both 1992 and 1993, the Blue Jays won the LCS to reach the World Series, winning respectively vs. Oakland A's and Chicago White Sox.
Toronto then also went on to win the World Series in 1992 and 1993, beating the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies.
For Texas, it was their first loss after having won seven consecutive road games in a League Division Series.
Toronto opens the ALCS on Friday against the winner of the fifth match-up between the Kansas City Royals vs. Houston Astros.
When KC wins, the series opens there, when Houston wins, the series opens in Toronto.
KC and Houston started their game later tonight.
On Thursday, the fifth and final game will be played between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets in the NLDS.
The winner of that game opens the National League Championship Series on Saturday at home against the Chicago Cubs, who won their NLDS vs. St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday, 3-1.
Starting pitchers today were righthander Marcus Stroman for the Blue Jays and lefthander Cole Hamels for the Rangers.
They also were the starting pitchers in Game 2, which lasted 14 innings and almost five hours, before being won 6-4 by the Rangers.
24-year old Marcus Stroman was 4-0 this season and started only four games after coming back from an injury he sustained during Spring Training.
In Game 2, Stroman was the starting pitcher for the Blue Jays and threw the first seven innings.
31-year old Cole Hamels also threw the first seven innings in Game 2 when he started for Texas in Toronto.
This season, Hamels was 13-8 with 215 strikeouts in 212 1/3 inning.
Hamels began the season with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he was 6-7.
Thereafter, he was 7-1 with the Rangers.
In his final start for the Phillies on July 25 vs. the Chicago Cubs, Hamels threw a No-Hitter, becoming the first pitcher in history to do so before in his last start before being traded during the season.
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(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Adrián Beltré was back in the line-up for Texas.
He left the first game of the series with lower back strain, then didn't play in the next two games.
Beltré then did play in Game 4, hitting two singles.
The 36-year old Dominican third baseman batted .287 this season, his fifth with the Rangers and 18th in the Major League.
The veteran belted 18 homeruns this season and batted in 83 runs, while also scoring 83 runs.
Texas opened the score quickly, taking an 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning off of Marcus Stroman.
Delino DeShields led off with a double and moved to third base on a grounder by Shin-Soo Choo.
He then scored beating the throw to the plate on a grounder towards first base by Prince Fielder, who was only 2-for-16 before today's game and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
The veteran player appeared in his 44 postseason-game, having played in the Play-Offs earlier for the Milwaukee Brewers (2008, 2011) and Detroit Tigers (2012, 2013) and now with the Rangers.
For Fielder, this was his first RBI in this series.
Before today, the powerhitter had no RBI in his previous 22 postseason-games, this was his first in his last 94 plate appearances!
In the regular season, Fielder batted in 98 runs for the Rangers, hitting 23 homeruns.
In the second inning, the Rangers reached base again.
Josh Hamilton led off with a walk, but then a sacrifice bunt-attempt by Elvis Andrus ended in a force out on second base.
Next, Rougned Odor singled to put runners on first and second base.
With two outs, Andrus took off to steal third base, but was thrown out in a close play by catcher Russell Martin.
A challenge followed, but the call was upheld, as 3B Umpire Vic Carapazza had made the correct call.
He was in the right angle to see that Andrus was tagged on his arm a fraction before touching the base.
In the bottom of the second inning, Toronto got its first two batters on base off of Cole Hamels, but was unable to score.
Edwin Encarnacion led off with a walk and Chris Colabello followed with a single.
But hereafter, Hamels retired the next three batters, two of them with a strikeout.
Shortly thereafter, in the top of the third inning, Texas doubled its lead when Shin-Soo Choo homered with one out.
The 33-year old Korean is playing in his eleventh Major League-season and second with the Rangers.
This season, he belted 22 homeruns for the Rangers.
Toronto cut Texas' lead in half in the bottom of the third inning.
With one out, Ben Revere reached on an infield-hit, moved on a grounder by Josh Donaldson and scored on a double by José Bautista.
To set up a force play, Edwin Encarnacion was walked intentionally, but then the two runners stranded.
Texas got a runner in scoring position in the sixth inning, but didn't score.
With two outs, Josh Hamilton doubled, but was left behind when second baseman Ryan Goins made a great play on a hard grounder by Elvis Andrus to end the inning.
Moments later, in the home half of the sixth, Toronto erased the deficit and came alongside, as Edwin Encarnacion homered into deep leftfield with one out.
Hereafter, Cole Hamels struckout the next two batters, but it had become a new ballgame again with a 2-2 score.
Then, a wild seventh inning, full of emotions followed!
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...America League Championship Series...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The Rangers re-took the lead in the top of the seventh in a weird situation.
Rougned Odor led off with a single and moved on a sacrifice bunt by Chris Gimenez, then reached third on a grounder by Delino DeShields.
With Shin-Soo Choo in the batter's box, catcher Russell Martin threw the ball back to the pitcher, but it hit the bat of the Korean slugger.
The ball caroomed towards third base and Odor took off to score.
When the ball hit the bat and Odor took off, Home Plate Umpire Dale Scott waved his arms and appeared to send Odor back to third base.
Scott, who was the crew chief, then got his 6-man umpiring crew together and it was decided that Odor was entitled to score after all, as Choo didn't interfered intentionally.
That triggered reactions from both Toronto-fans and players, resulting in an ejection.
Afterwards, Scott said that he mistakenly had called time out, but then got his crew together to make the correct call, letting Odor score.
Toronto-Manager John Gibbons informed the umpires that he protested the situation.
The umpires then decided to review the situation to do a rule-check and with that, the call was upheld, meaning that Odor had scored on the throwing error.
The game continued and Choo struckout to end the inning.
In the rules it states that if the batter is standing in the batter's box and he or his bat is struck by the catcher's throw back to the pitcher (or throw in attempting to retire a runner) and, in the umpire's judgment, there is no intent on the part of the batter to interfere with the throw, the ball is alive and in play.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Blue Jays got their first three batters on base via errors, then rallied for four runs to take a 6-3 lead.
Russell Martin first reached on an error by short stop Elvis Andrus, then a force play-grounder by Kevin Pillar ended in a throwing error.
The bases got loaded when a bunt by Ryan Goins ended in a force-error on third base.
Next, a force play at home followed on a grounder by Ben Revere for the first out.
Hereafter, Sam Dyson was brought in as reliever for Cole Hamels.
Josh Donaldson then popped the ball up behind second base, but it fell, enabling Pillar to score the tying run.
In the meantime, Revere was forced out on second base, as he had to wait near first base whether or not the ball was caught.
Toronto then took the lead when José Bautista drove the ball into deep left-centerfield for a 3-run homerun.
As Bautista remained standing in the batter's box watching the ball end up in the stands, an exchange of words followed, resulting in a bench clearing.
Edwin Encarnacion and Chris Colaballo followed with singles, then the inning ended when Troy Tulowitzki fouled out.
The benches then cleared again when there was an exchange of words between Tulowitzki and Dyson.
The Blue Jays held onto the lead in the exciting game and won their first postseason-game at home since winning the World Series in 1993!
(October 14)
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