Kansas City: The Kansas City Royals rallied with five runs in the seventh inning to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-3 on Saturday to take a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series.
With a berth in Major League Baseball’s World Series on the line in the best-of-seven set, the Royals were trailing 3-0 when they finally got to Toronto starting pitcher David Price in the bottom of the seventh.
Price had retired 18 straight batters - a Blue Jays playoff club record - including striking out three in the sixth.
But the Royals launched a rally with Ben Zobrist’s shallow fly to right field.
Blue Jays second baseman Ryan Goins, running back, appeared to call for the ball and outfielder Jose Bautista slowed his run toward it. But neither caught it, and Zobrist had the Royals’ first hit since the first inning.
Grounded
Lorenzo Cain then singled to right, Eric Hosmer singled to score Zobrist, Kendrys Morales grounded out to score Cain and Mike Moustakas snapped an 0-for-13 skid with a run-scoring single to tie it.
After Price struck out Salvador Perez, Gordon worked the count full before belting a double that scored Morales and chased Price.
The outburst recalled the Royals’ five-run eighth inning in their game-four win over the Houston Astros in the previous round of the playoffs, as well as their rally from a four-run deficit in the eighth inning of last season’s wild card game.
They padded their lead with another run in the eighth, leaving the Blue Jays hoping a shift to Toronto for games three and four on Monday and Tuesday will signal a change in fortunes.
After getting on the board with a run in the third, Toronto added two more in the sixth when designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion’s single drove.
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