Jays, Royals have some bad blood between them
The Toronto Blue Jays will play the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series starting Friday. Melissa Couto looks at five intriguing storylines heading into the series:
The 2015 ALCS will be a rematch of the 1985 version, in which Kansas City beat the Blue Jays in seven games. Toronto led the series 3-1 before the Royals clawed back to win the next three games and advance to the World Series, where they beat St. Louis. Kansas City has only been back to the World Series once since then — last season, when they lost to the Giants.
Toronto hasn’t won the World Series since its last appearance in 1993. The Blue Jays had homefield advantage during the 1985 ALCS, with the seventh game played at Exhibition Stadium. Kansas City will have home field this time around.
BAD BLOOD
Tensions ran high the last time these two teams faced each other at Rogers Centre in August. Royals pitcher Edinson Volquez hit Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson with a pitch in the first inning, prompting home plate umpire Jim Wolf to issue warnings to both clubs.
Volquez threw a change-up high and in on Donaldson in his next at-bat, before Toronto shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was plunked by reliever Ryan Madson, who remained in the game. The feud boiled over in the eighth inning, when Toronto reliever Aaron Sanchez was ejected for hitting Kansas City’s Alcides Escobar with a pitch. Benches cleared and angry words were exchanged postgame, with Volquez describing Donaldson as “a little baby.” Toronto won that game 5-2, then went on to win its next 10 to close the gap in the division standings.
IS THE PRICE RIGHT?
Toronto manager John Gibbons shocked Blue Jays fans when he used David Price out of the bullpen to relieve R.A. Dickey with a six-run lead in Game 4 of the ADDS. The left-handed ace, who threw 50 pitches in that game, making him unavailable to start the deciding fifth game, will start Game 2 of the ALCS.
Price, the 2012 American League Cy Young winner and one of the front-runners for this year’s best pitcher award, hasn’t necessarily been able to translate that success into the post-season, where he’s 2-6 with a 5.04 earnedrun average through 12 games. Price got the win after his Game 4 relief appearance last week — his first playoff victory since 2008, when he worked 2-1/3 innings of relief for Tampa Bay in a 9-8 win over Boston in the ALCS.
FAMILIAR FACES
It didn’t take John Gibbons long to find a new job after he was fired from his first stint as Toronto manager during the 2008 season. He took a job as Kansas City’s bench coach that off-season, working with the team until 2011. Gibbons has experience with the Royals core group, including position players Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Jarrod Dyson, Alcides Escobar, Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez, and pitchers Greg Holland, Luke Hochevar and Danny Duffy.
NO ONE WANTS IT MORE
Before this post-season began, the position player with the most games played without a playoff appearance was Royals outfielder (and former Blue Jay) Alex Rios with 1,691. Toronto’s Jose Bautista was second (1,403), while Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion was third (1,353). All three players, aged 34, 34, and 32 respectively, have waited more than a decade for their chance at post-season ball and none has disappointed so far. Rios is batting .286 with a couple RBI through five ALDS games for Kansas City, Bautista has hit two homers and driven in five runs and Encarnacion has a .333 post-season batting average with three RBI.