Estrada rescues Toronto from brink again
Pitching in elimination postseason games doesn’t seem to faze Marco Estrada.
The Glendale Community College product and Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher has handled the pressure well throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Estrada helped extend Toronto’s postseason run after he allowed one run and five hits in 7 2/3 innings in a 7-1 win against the visiting Kansas City Royals on Wednesday in the fifth game of the American League Championship Series.
Estrada, a former All-Western State Conference selection, struck out five and walked one in a 108-pitch performance. The series will resume at 5 p.m. PDT Friday at Kansas City with the Royals holding a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven game series. Game seven would be played Saturday, if necessary.
Estrada made his second appearance in the series. The right-hander took the loss in game one Friday before regrouping to shut down Kansas City, which scored 33 runs in the first four games.
“I wasn’t nervous and I had a lot of adrenaline going,” Estrada told Foxsports1 after the game. “I located early on and I had everything going.
“I haven’t pitched here in maybe a month. I had everything going after the first inning. I located my fast ball and our bats showed up. It’s easy to pitch to [catcher] Dioner Navarro.”
Estrada, 32, retired the first nine batters before giving up a lead-off single to Alcides Escobar in the fourth. Estrada, who was acquired in the offseason in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, then got Ben Zobrist to hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Estrada, who transferred to Long Beach State, faced the minimum 20 batters before walking Lorenzo Cain in the seventh with two outs.
Estrada saw his bid for a shut out end when Salvador Perez hit a home run to right field with two outs in the eighth. Alex Gordon then singled before Toronto Manager John Gibbens removed Estarda for Aaron Sanchez.
Estrada acknowledged the sell-out crowd, who gave him a standing ovation while leaving the field.
“It was incredible listening to everybody cheering when I came off the field,” said Estrada, who picked up a victory in the third game of the division series against the host Texas Rangers on Oct. 11 with the Blue Jays trailing two games to none in the best-of-five series.
In three postseason starts, Estrada is 2-1 with a 2.33 earned-run average. He’s yielded 14 hits, five runs and struck out 15 and walked one in 19 1/3 innings.
Gibbens said Estrada did a superb job of keeping Kansas City at bay.
“He rose to the occasion and had everything going,” said Gibbens, who guided Toronto to its first American League East Division championship and playoff appearance since 1993. “He had an overpowering change up and shut down a hot-hitting team.
“He’s been able to pitch like that all year. He had a couple of no-hitters going late into games. We’ve leaned on him all year. He’s a master at what he does.”
Kansas City Manager Ned Yost, whose team appeared in the World Series against the San Francisco Giants last season, said Estrada’s change up kept the Royals off balance.
“His change up was fantastic and he didn’t give us anything to hit,” Yost said. “He did a great job commanding his ball and executing his pitches.”
Toronto took a 1-0 lead in the second on a home run to left by Chris Colabello. The Blue Jays scored four runs in the sixth to make it 5-0. Toronto took a 2-0 on a bases-loaded walk to Edwin Encarnacion before Troy Tulowitzki hit a bases-loaded double to extend the advantage to 5-0. Jose Bautista and Kevin Pillar had run-scoring doubles in the seventh and eighth, respectively, for Toronto.
