Los Angeles: Toronto pitcher Marco Estrada allowed just four hits in 8 1/3 innings while the Blue Jays roughed up Texas hurler Cole Hamels in a 10-1 victory in their baseball playoff opener on Thursday.
The Blue Jays, who eliminated the Rangers in the American League Division Series last season, gained the upper hand in this year’s ALDS rematch and will try to stretch their series lead in game two of the best-of-five set in Arlington, Texas, on Friday.
“When you give up the amount of runs I did early in the game, it kind of deflates anything and everything of what home-field advantage really is,” said Hamels, who walked three and allowed six hits before he was lifted in the fourth inning.
In Cleveland the Indians made the most of home field advantage, belting three home runs in the span of four batters in the third inning en route to a 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox in game one of their AL division series.
Roberto Perez, Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor all homered in a three-run third off Boston starting pitcher Rick Porcello, rallying from 2-1 down to a 4-2 lead.
Porcello gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings and Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Cleveland’s relief pitchers managed to preserve the lead.
After reliever Bryan Shaw gave up a home run to Boston’s Brock Holt to lead off the eighth, closing pitcher Cody Allen came in and ended the inning.
Allen allowed a single in the ninth but struck out three to seal the win.
The Red Sox will try to rebound in game two on Friday.
Things weren’t so close in Arlington, where Estrada gave up a first-inning single to Adrian Beltre and then retired 12 straight Rangers batters before Elvis Andrus opened the sixth with a single to center field.
Estrada struck out six, didn’t walk a batter and threw just 98 pitches. His start was the longest in Toronto post-season history.
“The changeup was really good today,” he said. “I was getting a lot of swings and misses on it. But I think the most important thing was just getting ahead in the count. It just makes pitching a little easier.”
Rangers seek to rebound
Estrada had the luxury of a big cushion after the Jays jumped on Hamels for five runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth.
Josh Donaldson’s line drive skimmed off Texas third baseman Beltre’s glove to bring in the first run in the third. Two batters later, Jose Bautista’s single pushed the lead to 2-0. After Hamels walked Russell Martin to load the bases, Troy Tulowitzki cleared them with a three-run triple to right-center.
Bautista, whose bat-flip after his tie-breaking home run in the series clincher against Texas last October helped prompt bad blood between the teams that resurfaced in a mid-game brawl in May, added a three-run homer in the ninth.
Andrus had two of the Rangers’ four hits and scored the only run after tripling to open the bottom of the ninth.
“They kicked our a** today, but we’ve got four more games to go,” Beltre said. “Hopefully, it will be a different game tomorrow and we find a way to win.”
