(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Productive day give Royals big win to close in on World Series!
Nederlands
 TORONTO, Ontario (Canada) -
The Kansas City Royals had a very productive outing in Tuesday (October 20), resulting in a big 14-2 victory vs. the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 4 of the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
With the win, the Royals now lead 3-1 and are one win away from reaching the World Series.
Last year, the Royals also played in the final.
Game Five will be played on Wednesday.
Later tonight, the best-of-seven National League Championship Series continues in Chicago.
There, the Chicago Cubs host the New York Mets, who are leading the series, 2-0.
Starting pitchers today were righthander R.A. Dickey for the Blue Jays and righthander Chris Young for the Royals.
40-year old R.A. Dickey was 11-11 this season with a 3.91 ERA.
In his career, Dickey is 4-3 against the Royals, this season he was 1-0 against Kansas City.
In the ALDS against the Texas Rangers, Dickey was the starting pitcher in Game 4, which was won by Toronto with an 8-4 score.
In that game, Dickey became the oldest pitcher in history to make a postseason-debut as a starter.
The knuckleballer threw 4 2/3 inning, missing only one-third to become the winning pitcher.
36-year old Chris Young was 11-6 this season with a 3.06 ERA.
In his career, Young is 2-1 vs. the Blue Jays, this season he was 0-1 against Toronto.
Today, Young made his first postseason-start since 2006, when he started for the San Diego Padres during the NLDS.
Back then, he was the winning pitcher against the St. Louis Cardinals.
This is his third career postseason-appearance in his career.
During the ALDS against the Houston Astros, Young pitched four innings in relief in Game 1, striking out six of the first seven batters he faced.
Today, Young became the oldest Royals-pitcher to start a postseason-game with his 36 years and 148 days, passing Jeremy Guthrie, who was 35 years and 204 days when he started Game 7 of the World Series last year.
The Royals got on the board quickly, this time scoring four runs in the first at bat off of R.A. Dickey.
Alcides Escobar led off with a bunt-single and has now led off all four ALCS-games with a basehit.
In the previous three games, he led off with a single, double and triple!
Moments later, Escobar scored when Ben Zobrist followed with a homerun.
In Game 3 on Monday, Zobrist became only the fifth player in postseason-history to hit three doubles and score three runs in the same game and the first to do so since Albert Pujols did it in 2011, while playing for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The other three players to accomplish this feat were Frank Isbell in 1906 with the Chicago White Sox, Max Carey in 1925 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Hank Greenberg in 1945 with the Detroit Tigers.
Since Greenberg, Zobrist is only the second American League-player to do so.
The inning continued with a walk for Lorenzo Cain, who then stole second base and moved to third base on a single by Eric Hosmer.
Cain then scored on a passed ball.
A challenge followed, as he was tagged by the catcher, but the call was upheld and so, the Royals led with 3-0.
Hosmer also advanced on the passed ball, then moved on a grounder by Kendrys Morales and scored on a sacrifice fly by .
The Royals made it a 5-0 score when Álex Ríos homered with one out in the top of the second inning.
Hereafter, Alcides Escobar was hit by a pitch.
This also was challenged, but the ball hit his hand and so, Escobar reached and then advanced on a grounder.
Next batter Lorenzo Cain walked, which led to a pitching change.
Liam Hendriks took over and he ended the inning by eliminating Escobar on second base with a pick-off.
Royals-starter Chris Young struckout three batters (and walked one) in the first inning, then retired the side in the second at bat.
After the Royals were retired in order in the top of the third inning, the Blue Jays cut the deficit in half moments later.
With one out, Ryan Goins singled and Ben Revere walked.
The two then scored respectively on a ground-rule double by Josh Donaldson and a grounder by José Bautista to make it a 4-2 score.
Both teams were held scoreless in the fourth through sixth inning.
The Royals the struck again with a productive rally, scoring four more runs in the top of the seventh inning.
LaTroy Hawkins started the inning for the Royals.
The 42-year old veteran walked Salvador Pérez, then gave up singles to Alex Gordon and Álex Ríos that loaded the bases.
Hereafter, Ryan Tepera took over for Hawkins.
Tepera, who made his last appearance in the regular season, gave up a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield (the ball was caught just in front of the wall), which brought Pérez across home plate.
A wild pitch then enabled Gordon to score, then Ben Zobrist walked.
A following single by Lorenzo Cain then brought in the next run and a sacrifice fly by Eric Hosmer lifted the lead to 9-2.
For Hosmer, this was his 22nd RBI in a postseason-game.
With that, he nears the club-record and is now only one RBI behind wellknown George Brett.
In the top of the eighth, the Royals continued their productive afternoon/evening in Toronto.
With one out, Salvador Pérez doubled and Alex Gordon walked.
The bases got loaded (again) when Paulo Orlando (who had entered as a pinch-runner in the previous at bat) singled.
A run was then scored on a sacrifice fly by Alcides Escobar, then the bases got loaded again on an infield-hit by Ben Zobrist.
Two more runs were then added on a single through the middle by Lorenzo Cain to make it a 12-2 score.
That led to another pitching, as Mark Lowe was brought in, who then ended the inning by striking out Eric Hosmer.
The Royals weren't finished yet.
In the top of the ninth inning, they loaded the bases again with two outs.
Kendrys Morales led off with a single, then two outs followed.
When next batter Alex Gordon was hit by a pitch, Cliff Pennington became the new pitcher for Toronto.
A surprising pitcher, as Pennington is an infielder (primarily a short stop).
Trailing 12-2, the Blue Jays didn't use a regular pitcher anymore, but used the utility player instead.
And with that, Pennington became the first position player ever to pitch in the long postseason-history (more than 100 years).
Pennington, who came to the Blue Jays in August from the Arizona Diamondbacks, began with a 91 mph fastball for a strike, but then gave up a single by Paulo Orlando that loaded the bases.
Hereafter, Alcides Escobar followed with a 2-run single to make it a 14-2 score!
(October 20)
|
