Blue Jays and Royals Advance to ALCS

The Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals both won Game 5 of their Divisional Series playoffs on October 14th and will now face each other in the American League Championship Series beginning October 16th in Kansas City.

Toronto was down two games to none in the best of five series against the Texas Rangers, losing those first two at home. The Jays became only the third team to come back and win a five game post season set after losing the first two at home. The others were the 2001 New York Yankees and the 2012 San Francisco Giants. That could be a good omen for Toronto; those other two teams eventually won the World Series.

The Blue Jays won 6-3 after taking the lead in a bizarre seventh inning that saw a catcher’s return toss to pitcher hit the batter, three Ranger errors, and a bench clearing dust up, and capped by a three run homer by the Jay’s Juan Batista:

The Rangers didn’t take too kindly to Bautista’s bat flip, saying the usual stuff about “disrespecting the game” and unwritten rules and so on. With three errors in that inning, we think they should concentrate more on catching and throwing the ball than complaining about disrespect of the game.

In Kansas City, the mid season acquisition of starting pitcher Johnny Cueto continued to pay dividends. The right hander allowed two runs on two hits over eight innings, striking out eight and walking none in the Royals’ 7-2 win over the Houston Astros.

This will be the second time the two teams have met in the ALCS. The other time was 30 years ago, with the Royals winning in seven games. Kansas City went on to win the 1985 World Series, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in the I-70 Series as it was known.