Blue Jays Sweep Rangers to Advance to ALCS

By Djack

The Toronto Blue Jays are back in the ALCS for the second straight year as they beat the Texas Rangers in the ALDS for the second straight year. At the beginning of this series I thought this one would definitley go to 5 games and I definitley didn't think Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish would get shelled like they did. Toronto's starting pitchers out dueled the Rangers starter's in every game this series, games one and two Toronto did a good job of getting their starting pitchers an early lead to work with, tonight was the only real competitive game of this series. The Rangers played with hunger tonight, something we didn't see from them in games one and two, but it was too little too late as the Blue Jays had an energized home crowd to propel them to a victory tonight. It was back forth all game tonight, there was 3 lead changes, and we needed extra innings to decide it. Ultimately it wouldn't take long as the Blue Jays would get a walkoff on a fielder's choice to advance to the ALCS. Rangers had a late lead in the 6th inning, they didn't hold it for long as they let the Blue Jays tie it up immediately in that same inning. The Blue Jays were just the better team despite the regular season records and it showed. The Blue Jays lineup is clearly better, the starting pitching has more depth and is probably just better overall, and the bullpen isn't necessarily strong on either side but still advantage Blue Jays. Not that the Rangers bullpen had much of a chance since the Rangers failed to have any sort of lead in this series past the 6th inning. Rougnen Odor may have won the battle when he snuffed Jose Bautista earlier this season, but Bautista won the war as his team will continue to play in October, largely in part to his outstanding performance. The Blue Jays could be representing the AL in the World Series, regardless of who they play it'll be a tougher matchup for them than the Rangers. I'm just struggling to fathom how either of the potential teams they will play can stop this lineup from just destroying their pitchers because there's not going to be many better postseason pitchers than Cole Hamels that they'll face. Blue Jays are clearly on a mission and are playing with some serious purpose this might be the scariest team in the postseason right now, just ask the Rangers.