Donaldson dashes home, Blue Jays beat Rangers to win ALDS

Josh Donaldson made a mad dash from second base to score the winning run in extra innings as the Toronto Blue Jays advanced to their second straight American League Championship Series on Sunday, October 9 (Monday Manila time). The Rangers intentionally walked Edwin Encarnacion. Russ Martin had grounded to shortstop with two men on, and when the relay throw to first bounced, Donaldson challenged his arm and ended the series.

However, second baseman Rougned Odor’s errant throw to first base allowed Donaldson to sprint home from third and send the crowd of almost 50,000 fans at Rogers Centre into a frenzy.

The Blue Jays walked off in joyous celebration with a clean sweep of the team that finished with the best regular season record in the American League.

Not only did they sweep the Rangers, a team that had the best regular-season of any team in the American League, they did it in the booming style that has defined the team over the past two seasons.

Rangers starter and North High grad Colby Lewis allowed five hits, including two home runs, and five runs in two-plus innings. Both Odor and Lucroy scored to give the Rangers a 6-5 lead.

Sanchez was charged with six runs (four earned) on three hits, including two home runs, and four walks.

“It reminded me of the Matt Holliday slide (for the Rockies in 2007), honestly”, said Troy Tulowitzki, who was on deck. Tulowitzki looped a one-out single to right field, followed by a pitching change bringing in lefty Jake Diekman to face Michael Saunders. One thing is clear-Encarnacion is an elite power hitter.

“Our offence is great”, veteran Jose Bautista said in the mayhem of the Jays clubhouse Sunday night.

The Rangers have hit.279/.344/.453, scoring 5.2 R/G at Globe Life Park, while slashing.245/.299/.414 and 4.20 R/G on the road.

Martin becomes the fourth player to hit a post-season home run with four different teams, joining Ron Gant, John Olerud and Reggie Sanders. Jeffress allowed a walk in the first postseason appearance of his career but induced an inning-ending double-play to keep the Jays from adding to their lead. The youngster was outstanding in his first full season as a starter, going 15-2 with an AL-leading 3.00 ERA and 1.17 WHIP with 161 strikeouts in 192.0 innings.

“It’s tough to tell”, Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre said, when asked if his club suffered from its long layoff before the series. In the third, Josh Donaldson’s ground-rule double scored Ezequiel Carrera to give the Jays a 4-2 lead. Lewis got Jose Bautista to look at an 87 miles per hour fastball over the plate for a strikeout looking, but gave up a solo home run to Russell Martin on the second pitch of the next inning, extending Toronto’s lead to two runs.

Seager responded by driving a 3-0 pitch into the right field seats for a solo homer and a 1-0 Dodgers lead.

Blue Jays: 2B Devon Travis (right knee) sat out his second straight game but was available off the bench. He is day-to-day with a bone bruise but has no structural damage, Poulis said. Francisco Liriano was forced onto the seven-day DL with a mild concussion (Danny Barnes took the roster spot).

Odor, however, couldn’t complete the double play, and handed the game and the series to the Blue Jays with that throwing error.