Gaffe on fly opens flood gates
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ryan Goins saw the lazy fly leave Ben Zobrist’s bat and began to give chase from second base. Jose Bautista saw the same thing from right field and sprinted after the ball.
Neither of the Blue Jays wound up catching it.
A seemingly sure out turned into a hit when the ball fell in, beginning the Kansas City Royals’ five-run rally against David Price in the seventh inning Saturday. The Royals rolled the rest of the way to a 6-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays and a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series.
“I put my glove up and pretty much was saying, ‘I’m going to make this play,’ and then I didn’t make the play,” Goins explained, “so it’s on me.”
Luke Hochevar wiggled out of a jam to keep the Royals in the game, and Danny Duffy and Kelvin Herrera got the ball to closer Wade Davis, who had to survive a shaky ninth to preserve the win.
Davis gave up a leadoff single and walked pinch hitter Cliff Pennington but bounced back to strike out leadoff man Ben Revere and MVP candidate Josh Donaldson. Jose Bautista then flied out to right to give Davis his third postseason save and the Royals another postseason comeback win.
“Our guys never quit,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “They keep going.”
Even though they looked downright foolish flailing at Price’s pitches — until that lazy fly ball by Zobrist changed everything. They proceeded to string together four singles and a double in their go-ahead inning, getting run-producing hits from Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Alex Rios, along with an RBI groundout from Kendrys Morales.
It was a monumental collapse for Price, who at one point had recorded 18 consecutive outs. He fell to 0-7 in seven postseason starts, including a loss to the Texas Rangers in their AL Division Series.
“I gave up hits at thewrong time,” he said. “I felt good. It’s a very scrappy team. They put the ball in play. They continued to battle.”
Meanwhile, the reigning AL champs have won the last nine ALCS games dating to their memorable sevengame series against the Blue Jays in 1985 — the year they won their only World Series. The record is 10 consecutive wins set by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1970s and ’80s.
Now the Blue Jays head home for Game 3 on Mon- day night in dire trouble. All but three of the previous 25 teams to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven era have won the series — though the Blue Jays did rally from the same hole to beat the Rangers in five games in the division round.