Estrada takes loss in outstanding ALCS outing

Marco Estrada was once more masterful for the Toronto Blue Jays in the playoffs.

However, the Blue Jays’ bats hardly followed suit.

Behind a workman-like performance from starter Corey Kluber and lights-out relief from Andrew Miller and Cody Allen, the Cleveland Indians shut out the Blue Jays, 2-0, in game one of the American League Championships Series on Friday night at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.

The game-winning shot was pulled over the right-center field wall by Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor as Estrada offered a change-up that strayed a little too high. The one-out, two-run home run accounted for all of the game’s offense in the bottom of the sixth inning.

“I was just trying to get a good pitch and try to hit it back up the middle,” Lindor said in a postgame interview on TBS. “Thank the Lord, man, it went out.”

The blast came with second baseman Jason Kipnis aboard on a one-out walk and came in the only inning in which Estrada, a product of Glendale Community College, allowed multiple base runners.

He ended the night with a complete game, throwing eight innings, allowing the two runs on six hits and one walk with six strikeouts on 101 pitches.

Kluber exited after 6 1/3 innings pitched and 100 pitches, having allowed six hits and two walks with six strikeouts.

“Hats off to Estrada, [he] had a good game,” Lindor said. “Kluber [was] unreal.”

The series stays in Cleveland for game two on Saturday at 1 p.m. PST.

Estrada was starting on seven days’ rest after he won the opener of the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers, 10-1, after throwing 8 1/3 innings of one-run ball.

Despite the defeat, Estrada continued his impressive postseason run that extends back to last season when the Blue Jays also advanced to the ALCS. Over five starts, Estrada is 3-2 with a 2.02 earned-run average with 27 strikeouts to just two walks.

But Toronto couldn’t push a run across the plate though it had seven hits and two walks, with seven base runners over the first four innings squandered.

To begin Friday’s game, Estrada got behind, 2-0, against leadoff batter Carlos Santana, who then pushed a bunt single to third base. But Estrada took it in stride, coaxed a 4-6-3 double play on the ensuing at-bat and faced the minimum in the bottom of the first on nine pitches.

Estrada gave up a two-out single to Lonnie Chisenhall, who had three hits on the night, in the bottom of the second, but quelled any noise when he retired Coco Crisp to follow on just two pitches with a lineout to right field.

Meanwhile, Toronto put a pair of runners on base in each of the first three innings, but had nothing to show for it.

The third inning saw Estrada throw his first perfect stanza, doing so on 13 pitches.

Estrada allowed a one-out single to Lindor in the fourth, but the Indians did nothing more as Estrada kept the game scoreless.

Cleveland advanced its first runner into scoring position in the fifth when Chisenhall notched his second hit against with a leadoff single to right. Chisenhall was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and then to third on a comebacker, but Estrada notched a strikeout looking against Roberto Perez to end the inning. Though it was the Indians’ best scoring opportunity to that point, it was also Estrada’s most economic inning, as he threw just six pitches, all strikes.

But Cleveland finally struck in the bottom of the sixth when Lindor connected on an 0-2 offering for a two-run home run to right-center field. After Kipnis drew a one-out walk, Estrada got ahead of Lindor, but couldn’t finish him off. Estrada was able to finish off the inning, though, as he induced a popout to second base ahead of a strikeout.

Kluber’s night came to an end in the top of the seventh after he retired the leadoff batter and hit 100 pitches on the nose.

Chisenhall once again proved to be a thorn in Estrada’s side with a leadoff single to start the bottom of the seventh, but Estrada retired the side in order thereafter.

In the eighth, Estrada, who retired the last six batters he faced, threw a 1-2-3 stanza that culminated with a strikeout of Lindor.

Alas, Estrada’s excellence wasn’t enough to overcome the Blue Jays’ lack of offense.