Blue Jays outlast Royals in Game 3 slugfest
Toronto's 11-run output sets franchise mark for home playoff contest
Toronto's power outage ended Monday, allowing the Blue Jays to get one foot out of the hole they dug for themselves in Kansas City.
Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson and Ryan Goins homered as the Jays battered Royals ace Johnny Cueto en route to an 11-8 Toronto win that cut Kansas City's lead to 2-1 in the American League Championship Series.
Rain dance. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ComeTogether?src=hash">#ComeTogether</a> <a href="https://t.co/kTC2hmLbxO">pic.twitter.com/kTC2hmLbxO</a>
—@BlueJaysThe Royals, who outhit Toronto 15-11, rallied for four runs in the ninth but it was too little, too late.
"We desperately needed that breakout," said a relieved Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "You look at how the game finished up, those runs really came in handy.
"It wasn't an easy game, even though we had a big lead."
Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey faces Chris Young in Game 4 on Tuesday (4:07 p.m. ET).
The Royals won 5-0 and 6-3 in Kansas City, handcuffing a Jays offence that had led the majors in averaging 5.5 runs a game during the regular season. But the bats came alive in Game 3 in front of a loud sellout Rogers Centre crowd of 49,751.
Setting, tying playoff marks
Tulowitzki, Donaldson and Goins combining for nine RBIs on a night where the 11 runs scored set a Toronto franchise record in a home post-season game.
Ryan Goins: 1st career postseason HR Goins is 2nd player in Blue Jays history to HR from No. 9 spot in the lineup (Ed Sprague, 1992)
—@ESPNStatsInfoIt marked the third time in Jays' playoff history that the team has scored 10 or more runs. The three homers matched a franchise single-game playoff mark.
It also was the first time Toronto has won a post-season game when allowing 15 hits.
Apart from the Royals rally, the lone sour note was Tulowitzki's ejection after taking the field in the eighth, for chirping home plate umpire John Hirschbeck. The Jays shortstop, who had to be held back by bench coach DeMarlo Hale, had just struck out for the second time and wasn't happy about it. Neither was the crowd.
"I think it was obvious I didn't agree with the called third strike. And there were other pitches that were questionable," said Tulowitzki, who felt the ejection was unwarranted.
For Cueto, it was simply a night to forget. He gave up eight runs on six hits with four walks, one hit batsman and two strikeouts in two innings. He threw 69 pitches, of which only 39 were strikes.
Toronto starter Marcus Stroman pitched 6 1/3 innings in a bend-but-don't-break performance, giving up four runs on 11 hits with one walk and one strikeout.
"It was a battle all day. It was tough," he said of his first pot-season win. "I definitely didn't have my best command. I felt like I was getting into advantage counts and my off speed, I wasn't able to put them away, I was leaving some off speed up in the zone.
Aaron Sanchez, Mark Lowe, Hendriks and Osuna pitched the rest of the way.