ALCS Game Two Overflow I: Blue Jays vs. Royals

The afternoon shade cast by the upper deck has helped both Yordano Ventura and David Price limit the Blue Jays' and Royals' offenses, respectively.

Ventura pitched a clean, 1-2-3 first inning. David Price worked around an Alcides Escobar lead-off single and a Ben Zobrist fielder's choice (upon review) in which the switch-hitter beat out the throw on the back-half of a would-have-been double play.

Ventura worked around two base-runners with no outs in the second, thanks in large part to a sterling defensive play from Alcides Escobar, who snagged a Russell Martin liner from the air, doubling up Encarnacion who was too far off second to come back on a bang-bang play.

Price worked an effortless second, sending down the Royals in order with twelve pitches.

Kevin Pillar got an Alex Rios-assisted double--it wasn't misplayed, but a Dyson-Cain combo on the right side converts the out--and Ryan Goins followed with a double up the third base line to plate the first run of the game. Thankfully for the Royals, Ventura got Revere looking and followed with a groundout and flyout from the fearsome twosome of Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista.

Price needed just seven pitches to send down Dos Alexes and Escobar.

Working around a weakly hit two-out single from Troy Tulowitzki (on a pitch markedly inside and out of the strike zone), Ventura got out of the top of the fourth without much trouble.

The Royals had a ten-pitch fourth. Shockingly those ten pitches did not produce a Royal run.

Ventura enjoyed a 12-pitch fifth.

Morales had a hard-luck screaming liner hit directly to Donaldson at third, but Price needed just 13 pitches to finish off the Royals in the home-half of the fifth.

Josh Donaldson popped foul in the first at-bat of the sixth, but the ball clipped the cable holding up the netting behind the plate. While Perez deftly adjusted and barehanded the catch, ground rules dictated that it was a dead ball, and Donaldson used his second life to stretch out an infield single to short. Jose Bautista worked a five-pitch walk to put two aboard with no outs against Ventura. Ventura labored through a seven-pitch at-bat with Edwin Encarnacion before grooving a cutter in the heart of the strike zone. Fortunately Encarnacion merely placed a seeing-eye grounder under the diving glove of Escobar, plating just Donaldson.

After striking out Colabello, Tulowitzki sliced a double into the corner in right. Rios fully extended on a dive to catch the ball but came up short. The double scored just Bautista, as Encarnacion got a bad read on the ball, but Ventura squandered an 0-2 count on Russell Martin, losing him on a seven-pitch walk to load the bases and stamp his ticket to the dugout at 97 pitches.

Luke Hochevar came in to try to clean up the bases-loaded, one-out jam. He induced an infield fly from Kevin Pillar for the first out of the inning and then got Goins to ground out to first, allowing the Royals to escape without the game being BLOWN OPEN.

The Royals trail 3 - 0 heading to the bottom of the sixth.