TORONTO -- The Blue Jays had David Price warming up in the bullpen during Game 5 on Wednesday. Fortunately, they did not need him to pitch in the game. Better yet, they didn’t need Cliff Pennington, either. “Cliff wasn’t out there [in the pen],’’ Price said. “He was in the dugout.’’
And fortunately for Canadian fans -- and baseball fans in general who want some more games between now and the World Series -- Pennington will be in the dugout again Friday night, with his Toronto teammates on the field, Price on the mound and this series continuing to a sixth game. Because at least the American League Championship Series is still going. Down 3-1 in the series and one loss from having to fire up the snowblowers, the Blue Jays held off winter for at least two more days thanks to a superb, season-saving performance from Marco Estrada in a 7-1 victory over the Royals in Game 5.
“I can’t say enough about this guy, he was obviously special tonight,’’ said Troy Tulowitzki, who backed up his former Long Beach State teammate with a three-run double. “It’s the start that we needed. They’re a great team over there, we know that, but this guy kept them off balance and allowed the offense to settle in and get some runs.’’
Estrada was one of the toughest pitchers to hit this season -- he held opponents to an American League-low .203 batting average -- as well as among the least publicized. He’s getting some attention now though, or at least from people who actually have watched Toronto this postseason before those Cubs-Mets games. He’s certainly getting it in Canada, where he has saved the Blue Jays from elimination twice, first when they were down 2-0 in the division series and again Wednesday.
A potential free agent, Estrada was asked whether he thought about this being potentially his last start in a Toronto uniform. “Why put something like that in your head?’’ he said. “There’s no reason to.’’
Instead, he went out intending to throw nine scoreless innings against Kansas City. He came close, facing the minimum through the first six innings and not allowing a run until Salvador Perez took him deep with two out in the eighth. And just as he did against Texas in Game 3 of the division series, he won to keep his team alive.
“He commanded the zone, he got the leadoff guys out,’’ Price said. “When the biggest leadoff guy got on, he got Ben Zobrist to hit into a double-play ball. That was huge.’’
The Blue Jays need Price to come up just as big Friday and end his postseason drought. He led the league in ERA this season. He won the 2012 Cy Young and is a candidate again this season. He’s one of baseball’s best pitchers. Yet he has never won a postseason start, going 0-7 with 5.12 ERA. He pitched six superb scoreless innings in Kansas City during Game 2, only to have things fall apart in a five-run seventh inning that cost him the game.
Manager John Gibbons had Price warming up in the seventh inning in case the Royals put some runners on base and he needed a lefty reliever. That didn’t happen, and so Price will go into his Game 6 start with six days' rest.
So he should be ready to go against Kansas City starter Yordano Ventura. And if Price isn’t happy with his postseason record, he should simply take the advice of the message he has posted in his locker: “If you don’t like it, PITCH BETTER.’’
Hitting better, or at least more consistently, would likewise help the Blue Jays, who scored just three runs and rarely threatened the fences in Kansas City the first two games. They didn’t hit that much early against Royals starter Edinson Volquez, but they made it work.
Chris Colabello gave Estrada a 1-0 lead with a long home run in the second inning, and Tulowitzki broke the game open with his three-run double in the sixth, after three walks and a hit batter. One of those walks was on a 3-2 pitch that Jose Bautista took for ball four after fouling off five consecutive pitches.
Asked how confident he was that umpire Dan Iassogna would call it a ball, Bautista replied, “I wasn’t. I was relieved after he did.’’
Estrada and relievers Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna kept the lead, as opposed to what happened to Price in Game 2. So now the challenge is to get a lead again in Game 6, make it hold up and then do it again in Game 7. And basically do to the Royals exactly what Kansas City did to the Blue Jays in the 1985 ALCS. After all they’ve overcome this season, don’t rule out anything.
Actually, you can probably rule out one thing for Toronto: Pennington getting the win in Game 6. The question is whether Price will do it. But again, this team has had its back to the wall many times this year.
“We’ve been through a lot of hurdles all year,’’ Colabello said. “We were 7½ games back and we made the moves at the deadline, and had to claw back from that. We were down 2-0 in the division series and we fought back from that. We’re not going to give anything less than this, anything less than our best effort. That doesn’t mean we’re going to win the next two games, but I can tell you this, we’re going to leave everything out there.’’
