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 Trailing 2-0 after losses in Kansas City, the Blue Jays returned to
the Roger Centre's hitter-friendly confines and got a three-run
blast from Troy Tulowitzki and a two-run shot from Josh Donaldson in
a six-run third inning to open a 9-2 lead.
Ryan Goins added a solo homer in the fifth for the Blue Jays, who
will host Game Four of the best-of-seven series on Tuesday.
"That's really what we are all about (hitting)," Blue Jays manager
John Gibbons told reporters. "We desperately needed that breakout.
"The home run ball, which we are known for, was a huge part of the
game."
With the country's attention divided between electing a new prime
minister and the baseball playoffs, the Blue Jays stepped out into a
raucous arena knowing full well the task that awaited them if they
were to fall further behind.
Only once in Major League history has a team, the 2004 Boston Red
Sox, clawed their way out of 0-3 hole .
The situation, however, was not completely unfamiliar for the Blue
Jays, who dropped the opening two games of the best-of-five AL
Division Series to the Texas Rangers before storming back to sweep
the next three, but it was a high wire act that Toronto and their
fans were not eager to walk.
BOOM OR BUST
The most lethal hitting team in baseball, the Blue Jay bats have
been boom or bust in the postseason and on Monday they were firing
on all cylinders, cranking out 11 hits.
The Royals, however, were the first to get busy with Alcides Escobar
tagging Toronto starter Marcus Stroman for a first inning leadoff
triple then scoring on a Ben Zobrist groundout to grab a 1-0 lead.
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But Toronto hit right back, rattling Royals starter Johnny Cueto for
three runs in the second to match the total they scored in the first
two games of the series.
"You're hoping somewhere, at the two-inning mark, you're just hoping
that he (Cueto) can make that adjustment," Royals manager Ned Yost
said. "Tonight he just couldn't.
"Now we've got two more games here, we can go ahead and pour the
coals on them."
Toronto would tag on six more runs in that decisive third inning to
chase Cueto from the game and continued to bludgeon Kansas City's
pitching by building an 11-4 lead before the Royals pushed across
four consolation runs in the ninth.
"It is the same every single day in the club house," said Stroman,
after picking up his first postseason win. "You could not tell if
we're down 0-2 or up 2-0.
"What we have is extremely special the confidence that everybody
has... just looking forward to keeping it going."
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury/John O'Brien)
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