The Kansas City Royals, two wins away from reaching their second straight World Series, march north of the border Monday after thwarting the Toronto Blue Jays in Games 1 and 2 of the American League Championship Series.
Kansas City held Toronto’s high-octane offense to three hits and no runs in Game 1, then exploited Blue Jays ace David Price for five runs late in Game 2 for another improbable come-from-behind win, this time 6-3.
Price, who fell to 0-7 with a 5.44 ERA in seven postseason starts, took to Twitter to voice his belief that the Blue Jays are not down and out yet:
As the series shifts to Toronto, here is a viewing guide for Game 3 with ticket info and odds:
Game 3 Guide
Where: Rogers Centre in Toronto
When: Monday, Oct. 19, at 8:07 p.m. ET
Tickets: ScoreBig.com
TV: Fox Sports 1
Odds (via Odds Shark): Toronto 10-17, Kansas City 8-5
Preview
Dating back to 1985, the Royals have won nine straight ALCS contests, and they continue to show the resilience they rode until defeat in Game 7 of the World Series last year.
But Toronto was in this position a week ago before orchestrating three straight wins over the Texas Rangers to become the seventh team ever to recover from a 2-0 deficit in a division series. And the Blue Jays return to Rogers Centre, where they boasted the league’s fourth-best home record (53-28) in the regular season.
Manager John Gibbons noted the urgency but maintained confidence following Game 2, per Gregor Chisholm and Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. "Our back is against the wall, but it will be good to go back home, where we normally play well. … We feel good,” Gibbons said. “It's a lot tougher from here. But we have a pretty good team, too."
As difficult as their Game 2 loss was, Richard Justice of MLB.com noted the Blue Jays won’t blink:
Defeats come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. This was the worst kind and not just because it backed the Blue Jays into another corner.
The Blue Jays can deal with corners. They lost two straight games at home before winning three straight elimination games in the AL Division Series against the Rangers. This challenge isn't as difficult as that one.
Taking the hill for Toronto, Marcus Stroman will look for his first postseason win after pitching 13 innings with two no-decisions in the American League Division Series, including Toronto's Game 5 victory over Texas. Stroman, who was thought to be lost for the year after suffering a torn ACL in March, made a remarkable return late in the season and was a key cog in the team's rotation.
His repertoire features six pitches, but his bravado could be the difference.
"He’s got a great arm. He’s got great stuff, whatever you want to call it," Gibbons said, per David Waldstein of the New York Times. "But there’s something different about him, too, and I expect that if anyone can rise to the occasion, it would be him."
Opposite Stroman will be Royals right-hander Johnny Cueto, who is coming off an ALDS-clinching win over the Houston Astros in which he retired the final 19 hitters he faced. It was the defining moment of Cueto’s tenure in Kansas City, which could last as long as the Royals do, as he'll be a high-priced free agent in the offseason.
The Royals acquired Cueto at the trade deadline for moments like this, as general manager Dayton Moore told Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
“We knew Johnny would give us innings, help solidify our rotation and be a guy that can match up well against the better teams in baseball,” Moore said.
Should the game go to the bullpen, the advantage is Kansas City’s. Royals relievers held the Blue Jays to three hits and no runs over 6.2 innings in the first two games. The Blue Jays bullpen finished the final month of the regular season with the third-worst ERA (5.08) in the majors, per FanGraphs, though Toronto relievers are 2-1 with a .225 batting average against in the postseason.
The Blue Jays hope to avoid a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 hole, a margin that only one team has ever overcome in a best-of-seven series: the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS. But Toronto proved its identity is rooted in resilience after a defining come-from-behind ALDS victory over Texas. If Stroman can maintain his poise and the Blue Jays offense can find life, the series has the potential to go deep.
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