Rangers Season Ends With Error

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays found the knockout punch to complete an American League Division Series sweep Sunday night from an unusual source.

It was made by Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor, who delivered a memorable punch himself on May 15 on Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista when the teams brawled in Arlington, Texas.

The teams stayed with baseball in the ALDS and it was Odor’s throwing error in the bottom of the 10th inning on an attempt to complete a double play that allowed Josh Donaldson to slide home with the winning run after scampering from second base.

The 7-6 victory gave the Blue Jays a three-game sweep and six straight ALDS wins over the Rangers since dropping the first two games of the ALDS last year.

“It was a good feed for Odor,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “Just looked like he might have pulled the throw a bit. Mitch (first baseman Moreland) reached down to try to keep it in play, it got away from him a little bit and was unable to recover and make a throw to home plate. A heads-up play by Donaldson, who continued to run and he was safe.”

Donaldson led off the bottom of the 10th with a double to right center

against Matt Bush (0-1), who was pitching in his third inning.

“(Donaldson) makes things happen,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “You look at that game, Matt Bush was dealing. What a job he did. And Josh comes up with the — not trying to hit a home run — just took a great swing, the double in the gap to set that all up.”

Edwin Encarnacion, who had three RBIs and a homer in the game, was walked intentionally before Jose Bautista struck out.

Russell Martin, who also homered in the game, grounded to shortstop. Elvis Andrus fielded the ball and threw to second to force Encarnacion, but Odor’s relay throw to first was wide for an error.

Moreland knocked down the ball, then recovered and threw toward the plate, but Donaldson slid home with the winning run as the ball eluded catcher Jonathan Lucroy.

Banister asked for a review of Encarnacion’s slide at second and the play stood.

“I could tell Donaldson was safe at the plate,” Banister said. “But I was a little blocked out at the play at second base and couldn’t tell if there was any interference there at all. But wanted to make sure there was none.”

The Blue Jays paused in mid-celebration. The Blue Jays lost a game early in the season when Bautista was ruled to have made an illegal slide into second against the Tampa Bay Rays and the potential winning run was erased.

“You start going through memories of how it’s affected you in the past,” Donaldson said. “I looked at Eddie. I said, please tell me you had a good slide. If you didn’t have a good slide, this isn’t good. We are not cool right now if you did not have a good slide … but fortunately it was good. And Eddie had a good slide there and we were able to win the game.”

“I threw a little bit to the side, I pulled the ball a little bit, but I tried to do my best there,” said Odor, who hit a two-run homer in the game. “I think I had time. It was a good throw (to me) to make the double play.”

Andrus also homered for Texas.

Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna (1-0) pitched two perfect innings to get the win.

Rangers starter Colby Lewis allowed five hits, including two home runs, and five runs in two-plus innings.

Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez was removed for Joe Biagini with two outs in the sixth after giving up a walk to Odor and a single to Jonathan Lucroy.

Moreland greeted Biagini with a two-run double that glanced off the glove of diving center fielder Kevin Pillar to give the Rangers a 6-5 lead.

Sanchez was charged with six runs on three hits, including two home runs, and four walks.

The Blue Jays tied the game 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth on a single by Troy Tulowitzki against Jeremy Jeffress, a double by pinch hitter Melvin Upton Jr against Jake Diekman, an intentional walk to Pillar and a passed ball after Keone Kela had come in to pitch.

Bush struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth and had a perfect bottom of the ninth.

The Rangers scored in the first. Carlos Gomez led off with a walk, stole second, took third when Ian Desmond grounded out to the catcher and scored when Carlos Beltran grounded out to the pitcher.

The Blue Jays came back with three runs in the bottom of the first.

Ezequiel Carrera led off with a single and scored when Encarnacion hit his third home run of the postseason and sixth of his career. Martin made the score 3-1 with his first homer of the postseason and the fifth of his career.

Andrus led off the third with his first homer of the ALDS to cut Toronto’s lead to 3-2.

Carrera started the bottom of the third with a single, stole second, and scored on Donaldson’s ground-rule double to right.

Right-hander Tony Barnette replaced Lewis and gave up an RBI single to Encarnacion to put Toronto ahead 5-2.

Odor hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning to cut the lead to 5-4.