Ready to step up
Jays ace shrugs off poor playoff record heading into Game 2
KANSAS CITY— It can feel like 1985 in parts of Kansas City, sure. When you get to the airport you pick up a pay phone under the taxi sign, and a lady’s voice asks your name, and how many in your party, then she sends you a cab. The downtown still has its handsome old brick edifices, and when asked one of the things he likes about the city’s he’s called home for 20 years, your Ethiopian cab driver opens with, “well, there’s not much traffic.”
But this is not 1985, or 1989, or 1992, or 1993. The Toronto Blue Jays have spent a lot of time living in their past, but the past isn’t here. If the Jays manage to go up 3-1 in this series, they are no more likely to blow it because of something that happened 30 years ago. No, it is time to write something new.
With Game 1 of the American League Championship series against the Kansas City Royals Friday night, the Jays began a new chapter. The rollicking, intoxicating emotions of Game 5 against the Texas Rangers were gone, or at least reduced to fumes; Jose Bautista’s home run and bat flip heard ’round the world still elicits giggles of delight when it flashes across the screen, but it all begins again after every champagne celebration, now.
So they get to start again. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who hit the secondbiggest home run of the ALDS, had one other hit in 21 at-bats, and came out with a .412 OPS (on-base plus slugging.) Catcher Russell Martin escaped infamy in Game 5, and will have to contend with all kinds of fast Royals on the basepaths.
And above all of them, there is David Price. He will start Game 2 Saturday, after a strange, ineffective, conspiracy-laced ALDS. He had a 7.20 ERA against Texas. He doesn’t think it’s a trend.
“No, I know it’s going to come,” said Price before Game 1. “I have 100 per cent confidence in myself. I know my teammates do, as well, and our coaching staff. This is part of it. You’ve got to be able to live in the moment.
“I want to be able to step up for my teammates and this organization and all our fans in Canada. But good things are coming, I know they are. I’ve got confidence in that.”
It’s strange, though that’s not to say it’s wrong. But Kansas City’s tradedeadline ace, Johnny Cueto, started Game 2 and then the decisive Game 5 against Houston. Toronto looked at Cueto during the season, weighed what he was worth, and were scared off a little by a drop in velocity, plus the price tag of Marcus Stroman. They zeroed in on Price instead, and he was a true ace, until his last start of the season, and those two appearances against the Rangers.
His playoff record remains disappointing. He knows.
Asked if he was surprised that Price wasn’t starting Game 1 of this series, Royals manager Ned Yost shook his head.
‘I want to be able to step up for my teammates and this organization and all our fans in Canada. But good things are coming, I know they are. I’ve got confidence in that.’ — DAVID PRICE
“Nothing surprises me,” said Yost. “(Manager John Gibbons) has a good plan, like we feel we have a good plan. And there’s reasons for everything. There’s valid reasons for everything that a manager does. I just don’t — we don’t know what it is. But I guarantee you, Gibby’s got a good reason for it.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Price. “I mean, whatever this team wants me to do to try and help them win, I’m all about it. I knew I was going to be starting one of these games. I think (Saturday) might be my normal day’s rest for when I threw Game 4 in Texas. So (Game 1 starter) Marco (Estrada) has been throwing the ball extremely well all season long. I completely get it.”
However this series plays out, it will leave marks. The Jays are a little worried about the size of this park, how the ball will carry in the cold, and they respect the Royals pitching staff. The Royals can make contact, can run, are dangerous. Price being himself would go a long way towards Toronto having a better chance.
“It doesn’t change,” says Price. “Like I said before, the dimensions that I’m throwing are still 60 feet 6 inches. That stuff doesn’t change. At this point in the season you know where home plate is. You have a good feel for what you’re trying to do out there.”
The Division Series feels smaller in almost every way, because it is smaller. A best-of-five happens so fast, and can turn around even faster. Now the Jays settle into a bestof-seven, and the World Series is waiting on the other side. Time to do it all again, for the first time.