Blue Jays 2B Travis to miss second straight game

If the painful end of 2016 drives him the way it did Andrus, he may be on the verge of becoming the best all-around second baseman in the American League. They’ve yet to commit an error in the postseason, though the subjective nature of deciding what’s an error and what’s a hit doesn’t prove much.

Secondly, if the Red Sox don’t start to hit like they did during the regular season, than the rainout and its consequences – unintended or not – is largely moot.

The teams had an intense history when the infamous (or famous, for you Blue Jays fans) bat-flip from Jose Bautista was introduced into the world.

Of course, there were question marks. Performances from them and everybody else helped secure them home field advantage throughout the playoffs as the team with the best record in the American League. Toronto Blue Jays fans have a new social media sensation. There was no need for that this time around.

It would be easy to blame it squarely on Hamel’s and Darvish’s shoulders. I think with the first one out of his system he’ll settle into a groove next time out.

Deploying Osuna for two innings in Game 3 wasn’t ideal, said Jays pitching coach Pete Walker, but the 21-year-old was apparently insistent on returning to the mound in the 10th. Murphy went 3-for-3, with RBI singles in the fifth and seventh. “For great players to be great they can’t be afraid to fail”. Rougned Odor, he of infamous punching fame, showed nothing of the sort in also going hitless.

Donaldson had two doubles among his three hits and is batting.538 through four postseason games, all wins for the Blue Jays, who had to beat Baltimore in a wild-card game to get to the ALDS.

But eight of his 11 pitches were called balls and an opening five-pitch walk to Carlos Gomez came with a cost as he stole second and scored on a pair of groundouts. Estrada finally emerged as the Jays’ big-game ace, followed by Stroman.

The Texas Rangers’ final loss of the 2016 season had been over for 15 minutes and Adrian Beltre wore only his baseball trousers as he slumped in a folding chair in front of his locker, aimlessly rolling a baseball in his hand and staring at the floor. But it was not meant to be.

Over their past seven games, the Blue Jays have crunched 13 home runs. A passed ball allowed Tulowitzki to score the tying run.

Texas has lost six straight postseason games, all to Toronto.

In the bottom of the tenth inning, they would be.

With runners at first and second base Russell Martin hit into what seemed like an inning-ending double-play to short stop Elvis Andrus. Andrus’s throw wasn’t quite on line and Odor had to pause on the pivot under the hard sliding Encarnacion. And when Mitch Moreland couldn’t corral the ball at first base, he took off for home, the pain not even registering through all the adrenaline.

With a single errant throw across to the right side of the infield in Game 3 of the ALDS, it was the Rangers’ second baseman’s turn to take it on the chin, figuratively anyway.

CUBS at SF (EV, 7.5), 5:40 (FS1): NLDS Game 4 could be in the offing, as the Giants were favored to grab their first win on Monday night when the series resumed in the Bay Area. For more than a half-hour after the game, as his teammates showered and changed into their street clothes and hugged one another, he sat in a room in the back of the clubhouse, still in his full uniform. It did, and never at a worst time.