Blue Jays win Game 4 in Texas, set up winner-take-all in Toronto

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By: Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press

After twice being on the brink of playoff extinction, the Blue Jays are now one win away from the American League Championship Series.

Backed by early Josh Donaldson, Chris Colabello and Kevin Pillar home runs, R.A. Dickey and David Price combined for 7 2/3 innings as Toronto defeated the Texas Rangers 8-4 to tie their AL Division Series at two games apiece.

The deciding Game 5 goes Wednesday at the Rogers Centre, with hope of a happy ending for Toronto’s first foray into the playoffs in 22 years. The home team has yet to win in the series.

Price relieved Dickey with two outs in the fifth and the Jays leading 7-1, meaning Marcus Stroman will likely start Wednesday in what could be a rematch of Game 2 against Cole Hamels.

Price threw 50 pitches over three innings, giving up three runs on six hits with two strikeouts. Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna finished it off for the Jays.

“Sometimes the best way to win games is to not let teams back into it,” said Toronto manager John Gibbons when asked why he turned to Price out of the bullpen. “I told Price if we get you up (in the bullpen) you’re going in.”

“(Brett) Cecil down, (Aaron) Loup out today, it was hard for me to do, but I thought that was the best way to win the game.”

Toronto outhit Texas 12-11.

It was Price’s first relief outing in five years. He made five playoff relief appearances in 2008 with Tampa Bay.

The six-foot-six left-hander, the losing pitcher in Game 1, is now 2-6 all-time in the post-season. The two wins are both as a reliever and the six losses all as a starter.

After losing the first two games 5-3 and 6-4 in 14 innings in Toronto, the Jays had taken one step out of the hole they had dug themselves when they defeated Texas 5-1 Sunday on the strength of Troy Tulowitzki’s three-run homer.

On Monday, they smacked the Rangers about from the get-go. Texas’ ever present #NeverEverQuit Twitter hashtag suddenly was the Jays’ domain.

Toronto led 3-0 before Dickey set foot on the mound. It was 4-0 after two innings and 7-1 after three. Things settled down after that.

The Jays, who managed three home runs in the first three games, matched that total in two innings Monday for a franchise playoff record. It marked the first time the Blue Jays have hit three homers in a post-season game. The team had nine two-homer games.

Toronto led the majors with 232 homers during the regular season.

Globe Life Park, a steamy sea of Rangers red and blue with white rally towels twirling, rocked as a ZZ Top track teed up the first inning in 32-degree Celsius heat. But the sellout crowd of 47,679 fell quiet very quickly and some left early.

Donaldson made it 2-0 five pitches into the game when he deposited a 1-0 Derek Holland pitch into the right-field seats for a 381-foot homer. Ben Revere had bunted his way on base. Two outs later, Colabello hit a solo shot 373 feet into right-field.

It was Donaldson’s second homer in the series, with both coming in the first inning. The Jays’ MVP candidate led the majors with 13 first-inning homers during the regular season.

Pillar upped the lead with a 412-foot solo shot in the second inning that was caught by Price in the Jays bullpen in left-centre.

Toronto added three more runs while sending eight to the plate in the third, chasing Holland after he gave up a single and double to open the inning. He faced 12 batters in all, getting just six outs before giving way after 37 pitches including 21 strikes. Donaldson scored on a fielder’s choice, Edwin Encarnacion came in on a Colabello double and Pillar singled home Colabello to make it 7-0.

Texas finally got on the board in the third on a pair of singles and a Dickey wild pitch.

Colby Lewis pitched three innings of one-run relief for the Rangers. Four more Texas relievers combined to hold Toronto to one run.

The teams traded runs in the seventh for an 8-2 Jays lead with Texas adding another two runs off Price on three singles and a groundout in the eighth.

Facing another must-win game, the Jays had all hands on deck Monday with Price and Stroman both available to come out of the bullpen if needed to back up Dickey.

“There’s no margin for error so you can’t wait too long,” Gibbons said before the game.

The Jays’ offence wasted little time providing Dickey a comfortable cushion. The knuckleballer, who started his career as a Ranger, took care of the rest.

Price warmed up in the seventh inning of Game 3. And he and Stroman were soon engaging in a leisurely game of catch in the bullpen Monday.

The 40-year-old Dickey became the oldest starting pitcher in MLB history to make his post-season debut. The stakes couldn’t have been much higher for his playoff entree

“This is not an insurmountable peak,” Dickey said prior to the game.

He should know, having climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2012 to raise awareness for an organization in India that fights human trafficking.

Dickey, exiting in the fifth with one man on, gave up one run on five hits with three strikeouts, throwing 78 pitches including 47 strikes. Price dispatched Shin-Soo Choo with one pitch to end the inning.

Choo and Adrian Beltre, who hit two and three in the Texas lineup, had combined for four hits off Dickey in the game.

Beltre, the Rangers third baseman, returned to the lineup after leaving Game 1 with a lower back strain.

Pitching choices aside for Toronto, there was little drama in the game after the Jays jumped into the early lead.

History is still not on Toronto’s side. Home teams that lost the first two legs of a five-game playoff series – including League Championship Series – were 2-27 according to Elias Sports. Teams that lost the first two games of a Division Series were 5-42.

But the Jays are the team on a roll while Texas is reeling.

“The fact we’re going back is everything,” said Gibbons. “We’ve been good at home all year … that’s where we’re best, so we’ll see.”

Toronto upped its all-time post-season record to 23-22.

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