Blue Jays look to ignite ice-cold bats, avoid 3-0 series deficit
Toronto scored 1 run, went homerless in 2 games at Cleveland
Troy Tulowitzki attempted to bring some calm to Blue Jays Nation as the team digests its 2-0 deficit to Cleveland in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
"We were here last year. There's no quit in us. … We'll definitely make it interesting. I promise you that," the veteran shortstop told reporters on the weekend, recalling last year's comeback from a 2-0 hole in the best-of-five AL Division Series versus Texas. The Jays went on to reach the ALCS against eventual World Series champ Kansas City.
- MATCHUP: Cleveland at Toronto, ALCS Game 3, 8:08 p.m. ET
- Blue Jays' Stroman confident ahead of Game 3
- Toronto falls into 2-0 hole vs. Cleveland
Tulowitzki, 1-for-8 with a strikeout in the first two games at Cleveland, will try to rebound at the plate for Monday's Game 3 in Toronto (8:08 p.m. ET).
After scoring 22 runs on eight homers in a three-game sweep of Texas in this year's ALDS, the Jays managed only one run in 18 innings at Progressive Field on Friday and Saturday, compiling a .159 batting average with 25 strikeouts in 63 at-bats.
A year ago, Tulowitzki sparked the Toronto offence with his first hit in 12 at-bats of the ALDS, a three-run home run as part of a two-hit, four-RBI performance in a 5-1 victory at Globe Life Park.
"Coming into Texas, [the thought] was hopefully we can get on the board first, and we did that tonight," Tulowitzki said at the time.
The Blue Jays didn't do that in Cleveland, where they left seven runners on base in the first four innings against Corey Kluber in a 2-0 series-opening loss, and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
History shows that we can hit the baseball.- Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin on his team's offensive struggles
In Game 2, they managed just three hits against starting pitcher Josh Tomlin over 5-2/3 innings while the trio of Bryan Shaw, Andrew Miller and closer Cody Allen pitched 3-1/3 hitless and scoreless innings of relief in a 2-1 win.
"History shows that we can hit the baseball," Jays catcher Russell Martin said. "It definitely would be nice to start doing that."
The 33-year-old Martin has two hits in 23 at-bats in October and is 1-for-7 with four strikeouts in the ALCS.
However, the Montreal native is 3-for-6 with a homer in his career against Cleveland's Trevor Bauer, the team's scheduled starter for Monday. Bauer, though, cut the pinkie finger on his right hand for 10 stitches last week while repairing a drone, and had his start pushed back a game.
The right-hander sported a small bandage on his finger at Sunday's news conference, and said gripping the ball doesn't bother him, but Bauer won't be allowed to wear any kind of covering in Monday's start.
Dominance
The 25-year-old had a 12-8 record and 4.26 earned-run average in the regular season, including a 1-0 mark and 1.38 ERA in two games against Toronto. Bauer tossed five scoreless innings in Cleveland's 2-1, 19-inning win at the Rogers Centre on July 1.
Marcus Stroman takes the mound for the Blue Jays on Monday and is looking to continue his dominance of Cleveland. He struck out 15 batters over 14 innings in two starts in the regular campaign and yielded only two runs, going 7-1/3 strong innings in his most recent start against the team, on Aug. 21.
Stroman, a victim of poor run support at times this season, brushed it off on Sunday.
"Not really worried about it to be honest with you," he said. "Sometimes, you go in spurts. Our offence is amazing … and I have the confidence in [my teammates] to go out there and score runs."
Cleveland didn't exactly light up Toronto starters Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ in Games 1 and 2, hitting .182.
Since 1985, only three teams have come back to win a best-of-seven LCS.
"This is a team that's played well with our back against the wall," said Toronto centre-fielder Kevin Pillar, a .091 hitter in October (2-for-22) after batting .266 in the regular season. "You've still gotta win four games in this series, it doesn't matter how you do it or what order they come in."