The League Championship Series are set. The 2015 MLB playoffs will continue tonight at 8:07 p.m. ET when the Kansas City Royals host the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of the ALCS. Here are the five things you need to know about this series.
The Royals were here last year, but the Blue Jays are making their first appearance this deep in the postseason since 1993. What will be the key aspects in this one?
5. These two clubs have bad blood
Yup, and here's a Taylor Swift reference:
The Royals and Blue Jays last squared off during a four-game set in Toronto. The Blue Jays won the season series 4-3 after taking three out of four during that meeting in August. However, the last game between these two did not end in a convivial fashion.
Royals starter Edinson Volquez hit Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson in the first inning and continued to pitch inside to him in his subsequent at-bats. Then Royals reliever Ryan Madson hit Troy Tulowitzki later in the game and also continued to throw inside to Donaldson. Home plate umpire Jim Wolf for some reason issued a warning to both clubs after Donaldson was hit in the first and then hastily ejected Jays reliever Aaron Sanchez in the eighth inning when he hit Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar.
And then the benches cleared, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons was ejected and a Twitter war ensued.
Check it out below:
So yeah, this should be a pretty heated series between the top two clubs in the American League.
4. This is a rematch of the 1985 ALCS
The Royals won the first ALCS matchup in seven games after they were down 3-1. The Blue Jays dropped the final two games of the series at home and the Royals advanced to the World Series to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, which was their last championship.
The Blue Jays' last advanced to the World Series in 1993, which was also their last championship.
Kansas City will have home-field advantage in this one after the Blue Jays struggled in their last few games of the regular season, but as we've seen thus far, the away team has been more successful. Home teams in the 2015 MLB playoffs are just 9-12 and four with home-field advantage (in the wild-card games and LDS) have been eliminated.
However, it could be different in this ALCS matchup because both of these home crowds have been absolutely deafening in their three postseason games.
3. Look out for the battle of the bullpens: Toronto's young guns vs. Kansas City's seasoned vets
Both of these units have been crucial in the postseason so far. If you take out the wild-card teams that were eliminated (Pirates and Yankees), the Blue Jays rank third in ERA (2.37), first in opponents' OPS (.477), second in innings pitched (19) and third in WHIP (0.95) while the Royals are third in ERA (3.12), first in strikeouts (27) and second in pitches per plate appearance (3.76).
Kansas City had a bit of trouble with the Astros in the ALDS, but understandably so because Houston was second in the MLB in home runs (230), second in OPS (.752) and sixth in runs scored (729). However, their next opponent was first in runs scored (891), first in home runs (232), first in OPS (.797) and second in average (.269) during the regular season.
The Royals finished seventh in runs scored (724), third in average (.269) and 10th in OPS (.734), so that won't be a walk in the park for Blue Jays' rookies Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez, who carried the load in the ALDS.
The key here is that both teams are missing contributing veterans - Greg Holland is out for the Royals and Brett Cecil is out for the Blue Jays. Kansas City has the edge in terms of postseason experience, but it doesn't look like the pressure is affecting Osuna (5 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 K) or Sanchez (5 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 K) after their stellar ALDS performances against the Rangers.
2. The Blue Jays' rotation will out-perform the Royals' rotation
Toronto has no issue putting four starters out there, but the Royals don't know who their fourth starter is going to be, or if the other three will give them decent outings. They'll go with Volquez, Yordano Ventura and Johnny Cueto in the first three games, but how good will each of them be against Marco Estrada, David Price and Marcus Stroman?
Here are the career postseason stats for the Royals' starters:
Volquez: 0-3 with an 8.76 ERA, 1.87 WHIP and 1.22 KK/BB ratio in three career starts
Ventura: 1-1 with a 4.18 ERA, 1.36 WHIP and 1.85 KK/BB ration in seven career games (six starts), including two dominant outings against the San Francisco Giants in last year's World Series
Cueto: 1-2 with a 4.37 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 3.20 KK/BB ratio in five career starts
Volquez has never given up fewer than three earned runs in a postseason game, and while Cueto was amazing on Wednesday night, there's no predicting how he'll perform moving forward. Ventura's two starts against the Astros in the ALDS were not good, which is a bit of a concern since it seemed as if the team was relying on him to perform well.
As for the Blue Jays, their rotation has limited postseason experience, with the exception of Price, who has been bad in that department, but Estrada and Stroman impressed in the ALDS and R.A. Dickey had a solid outing as well.
The one thing we do know is that both rotations will have a tough time against these offenses.
1. Expect a WWE-style six-man tag match between Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion vs. Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Kendrys Morales as they battle for offensive supremacy
It'll kind of be like those old-school TLC matches between the Hardy's, Dudley's and Edge and Christian.
These six players are arguably the best hitters in this series. We didn't see an awful lot out of Gordon and Hosmer in the ALDS, but expect them to step up as the stakes get higher (as they did in 2014). Morales has provided the power, blasting three home runs and batting in six runs against the Astros, so the Royals' offense has good momentum, especially after scoring 16 runs in the past two games.
As for the Blue Jays, we don't have much explaining to do. Donaldson, Bautista and Encarnacion were tops in the MLB in runs scored, home runs and RBIs. They'll be going up against a starting rotation that ranked 22nd in the MLB with a 4.34 ERA during the regular season. The challenge will be facing the Royals' bullpen, but the Blue Jays feast on fastballs, so they might have the edge there as well.
Be ready for a wild one, folks. The Royals and Jays have a lot to play for, as Toronto hasn't won a World Series since 1993 and Kansas City hasn't since 1985. Expect this to go to seven games.
