TORONTO — Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson and the slugging Toronto Blue Jays were eager to return to their homer dome after dropping the first two games of the AL Championship Series in Kansas City.
TORONTO — Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson and the slugging Toronto Blue Jays were eager to return to their homer dome after dropping the first two games of the AL Championship Series in Kansas City.
They showed everyone why.
The Blue Jays came out swinging and their rowdy fans were singing from the start, with Tulowitzki and Donaldson connecting in a six-run third inning as Toronto roughed up Johnny Cueto and the Royals for an 11-8 victory that cut Kansas City’s series lead to 2-1.
“That’s really what we’re all about,” manager John Gibbons said. “We desperately needed that breakout.”
Veteran knuckleballer R.A. Dickey will try to get the Blue Jays even in the best-of-seven series Tuesday afternoon. He faces Kansas City’s 6-foot-10 right-hander Chris Young in Game 4.
Ryan Goins also homered and had a two-run single a game after his misplayed pop fly set off Kansas City’s winning rally Sunday.
The resilient Royals tried to come back this time, too, scoring four runs in the ninth before Roberto Osuna closed it out.
Even with a big lead, Tulowitzki lost his cool. He was given a rare playoff ejection for arguing balls and strikes before the top of the eighth.
Tulowitzki, who struck out looking in the seventh, was restrained by teammates as he argued with plate umpire John Hirschbeck when the Blue Jays took the field for the eighth. Gibbons and bench coach DeMarlo Hale also came out to break it up.
Despite being outhit 15-11 by the pesky Royals, Toronto pounced on Kansas City’s pitching in the first ALCS game in Toronto since 1993 for their most runs ever at home in the postseason — after scoring just three in two games in Kansas City.
Kansas City scored four times off starter Marcus Stroman and then added four in the ninth, capped by Kendrys Morales’ two-run homer off Osuna.
Seemingly not distracted by the contentious federal elections that were being held in Canada on Monday, 49,751 fans serenaded Cueto with a sing-song “Cueto-Cueto!” chant from the game’s first pitch and never quieted down.
The Royals took a quick lead when Alcides Escobar led off the game with a sinking liner that went under right fielder Jose Bautista’s glove for a triple off Stroman. Ben Zobrist drove in Escobar with a grounder, but that was the only advantage Kanas City would hold in having its nine-game ALCS winning streak snapped. The string dated to the 1985 series against Toronto.
Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar quashed that rally with a fantastic, over-the-shoulder catch that sent him crashing into the wall.
After an easy first, Cueto appeared flustered by the crowd. Eleven of his remaining 13 batters reached and at one point in the third inning he threw his hands up in frustration after gesturing for a new cycle of signs from catcher Salvador Perez.
Cueto was coming off a dominant eight-inning performance in Game 5 of the ALDS, retiring his last 19 batters. But after giving up Pillar’s RBI double in the third, he was done.