Bautista, Blue Jays aim to flip fortunes
Jose Bautista wore a shirt featuring the words “Toronto vs. Everybody” as he answered questions from reporters after Saturday’s come-from-ahead loss in the American League Championship Series.
At times it must feel more like Bautista vs. Everybody.
The Toronto Blue Jays right fielder is participating in the playoffs for the first time in his 12year career, and he’s burning with an intensity that shows in his body language on the field, whether reacting to umpires’ calls or celebrating the franchise’s biggest home run since Joe Carter’s World Series-clinching blast in 1993.
Now, as the series moves to Toronto with the Kansas City Royals ahead 2-0, the Blue Jays hope a return to the site of this postseason’s most electrifying moment will help spark a turnaround in their fortunes.
They were shut out by Edinson Volquez and the Royals bullpen in Game 1 and then wasted David Price’s masterful six innings in Game 2, when a misplay by second baseman Ryan Goins on a pop fly between him and Bautista opened the door for Kansas City to overcome a 3-0 deficit.
Changing venues to the hitterfriendly Rogers Centre certainly won’t intimidate those never-saydie Royals, who have turned lateinning comebacks into their playoff MO. But it provides a more comfortable setting for the majors’ most explosive offense, which produced three runs in the two games at Kauffman Stadium.
Toronto tied for the best home record in the AL at 53-28 this season, including a 23-8 mark after a series of transformative trades in late July.
“I expect it to be loud,” catcher Russell Martin said. “We’re going to try to feed off that just the way Kansas City did over here.”
Toronto proved it’s not merely a hockey town when the Blue Jays drew capacity crowds in 20 of their final 21 home games.
Bautista’s colossal home run and emphatic bat flip during Game 5 of the division series against the Texas Rangers sent the Rogers Centre into euphoria, and it was fitting he would be the one to cap the comeback from a 2-0 series deficit. During the latter part of the Blue Jays’ 22-year absence from the playoffs, the six-time All-Star and two-time home run champion was the player who kept them relevant.
Monday, on Bautista’s 35th birthday, the ALCS is coming to Toronto for the first time in 22 years. This former baseball vagabond, who once played for four different teams in the same year, would like nothing more than to provide more thrills to the city where he has found a home.