|
 Estrada allowed three hits and one run in 7-2/3 innings and faced
the minimum 18 batters through six innings as Toronto pulled to
within 3-2 in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
"Today he was absolutely dynamite," Royals managers Ned Yost said of
Estrada. "He didn't miss spots. His change-up was fantastic, he just
didn't give us anything to hit."
Chris Colabello gave Toronto the early lead with a second inning
solo home run and Troy Tulowitzki broke the game open in the sixth
when he lined a three-run double to centre to give the Blue Jays a
5-0 lead.
The Royals will get another chance to clinch their second
consecutive trip to the World Series when the series resumes in
Kansas City on Friday.
"We knew it was going to be a tough series," Yost told reporters.
"After winning the first two games, in reality your goal is to come
to Toronto, kind of a foreign environment, and at least win one.
"Then you get to go home and win one there and the series is over.
Now we're going back to a place where we are completely comfortable.
That's why home field advantage was so important to us."
Despite a momentum-building win the Blue Jays still face a daunting
challenge. Only 12 of 79 MLB teams to trail a League Championship
Series or World Series have rallied back to win the best-of-seven
battle.
The Royals, however, are aware as any team that anything can happen
having twice erased similar deficits themselves.
In the 1985 ALCS the roles were reversed with the Royals rallying
from 3-1 down to beat Toronto and again versus the St. Louis
Cardinals to win that year's World Series.
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It is not unfamiliar territory for Toronto, who dropped the opening
two games of the best-of-five AL Division Series to the Texas
Rangers before winning the next three games to advance.
"We didn't panic and that's what we do," said Toronto manager John
Gibbons. "That's what makes our offense so good. Guys take their
walks and it sets up things for other guys."
After two slugfests that produced 35 total runs, Game Five was a
classic pitchers' duel between Estrada and Royals starter Edinson
Volquez.
Facing a do-or-die situation and their bullpen in tatters, Estrada
delivered a performance the Blue Jays desperately needed while
Volquez was nearly as effective limiting Toronto's big bats to one
run until the sixth.
Volquez began the inning with a lead off walk to Ben Revere then hit
Josh Donaldson with a pitch and walked Jose Bautista to load the
bases.
He then walked Edwin Encarnacion to bring across a run before
Tulowitzki brought the capacity crowd to its feet with a thundering
shot to the wall.
Toronto would add another run in the seventh to surge ahead 6-0
before Salvador Perez's two-out solo shot in the eighth would ruin
the shutout.
(Editing by Frank Pingue)
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