ALDS Game 3: Blue Jays stay alive, top Rangers 5-1
The Toronto Blue Jays staved off elimination Sunday night, beating the Texas Rangers 5-1 in Arlington, powered by Marco Estrada’s strong pitching performance and Troy Tulowitzki’s three-run home run.
It was the kind of game the Blue Jays have been putting together consistently over the last two months, but had yet to do it in the postseason. They were able to get back on track and succesfully cut the Rangers’ lead in the series to 2-1.
• Estrada came up clutch when his team needed him most. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up one earned run on five hits, no walks and five strikeouts in his first career playoff start. Doing it in a do-or-die game makes it even more impressive.
• Tulowitzki’s sixth inning homer was his first hit of the postseason. He also knocked a single to left field in the eighth and drew an RBI walk in the fourth. Tulowitzki hasn’t looked completely right since returning to the lineup after suffering a shoulder injury in mid-September and missing two weeks. If this was his breakout game, this lineup becomes even more dangerous.
• There’s a reason Josh Donaldson is the front-runner to land the AL MVP award. He flexed his muscle in this one, going 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.
• Josh Hamilton came into the game hitless in his last 30 postseason at-bats. He grounded out in the second to extend the streak to 31 AB’s, but he finally broke through in the fifth with a single and added another in the seventh in a losing effort.
• Have your pick of Texas’ big bats. Shin-Soo Choo, Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland, the 2-3-4 hitters in the Rangers’ lineup, combined to go 0-for-12 at the plate. In the series, the trio have combined for two hits in 31 at-bats. That’s just not going to cut it.
• Chris Colabello and Ryan Goins were the only Blue Jays hitters not to get hits, both going 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
After coming into the game and walking Edwin Encarnacion on 10 pitches to load the bases with no outs in the sixth, Rangers reliever Chi Chi Gonzalez got Colabello to line into a 3-2-3 double play, and must have thought he was about to escape significant damage.
He was wrong. The next batter was Tulowitzki, and he smashed a 3-2 changeup into the seats in left field to put the game firmly in the Blue Jays’ hands.
• Can Toronto do it again? The Blue Jays played their best game of the series Sunday and a repeat performance in Game 4 should be enough for them to get another victory and send the series the distance.
• David Price’s availability. Toronto’s Game 1 starter and the favorite to win the AL Cy Young award this season warmed up in the bullpen for an extended period of time, but did not enter the game. Could he be used in relief in Game 4? Might he start? Jays manager John Gibbons did say before the game that Marcus Stroman would likely start a potential Game 5, though Gibbons didn’t rule out having Price pitch that game either.
The Blue Jays need a win Monday in Texas to force a Game 5 back in Toronto on Wednesday. They’re scheduled to send knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (11-11, 3.91 ERA) to the mound in Game 4 and will face Rangers left-hander Derek Holland (4-3, 4.91 ERA). First pitch is set for just after 4 p.m. ET.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
