TORONTO – Marco Estrada took the mound with one task: save the season for the Toronto Blue Jays.
He did it, pitching one-hit ball into the eighth inning to give Toronto’s tattered bullpen a rest, and the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-1, Wednesday to close to 3-2 in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
“It’s the start that we needed,” shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. “They’re a great team over there. We know that. But this guy kept them off balance and allowed the offense to settle in and get some runs.”
Tulowitzki provided three of those runs. He broke the game open with a bases-clearing double off Kelvin Herrera in the sixth, giving him seven RBIs in the series. Edwin Encarnacion had walked with the bases loaded against Edinson Volquez, who seemed flustered by a couple of close calls against the Royals.
Kansas City totaled 22 runs and 30 hits in the first two games in Toronto, but Estrada faced the minimum 20 batters before Lorenzo Cain walked with two outs in the seventh. Closer Roberto Osuna was perfect in the ninth.
Yordano Ventura will start for the defending AL champions on Friday in Game 6 against David Price, the Game 2 loser.
Estrada, a 32-year-old free-agent to be, kept the bullpen door closed for most of the afternoon, a day after Kansas City romped 14-2 in a game that saw infielder Cliff Pennington pitch in the ninth.
“This time around I had a better fastball command,” said Estrada, who gave up three runs in the opener. “That was the key to this game.”