KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals have established a reputation for dramatic postseason comebacks the past couple of years, beginning with last season’s wild-card victory over Oakland.

Turns out, the Toronto Blue Jays have some never-say-quit spirit as well.

After going on a second-half run to make the playoffs, then rallying from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Texas in a best-of-five matchup, the Blue Jays will try to beat the Royals in another win-or-else situation in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series on Friday night.

Toronto forced the series back to Kansas City with a 7-1 rout on Wednesday, closing to 3-2.

“You look at all the elimination games, our offense has really come to life,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said Thursday. “We’ve said all along that’s the key to our team, scoring runs. You hate to make a habit of it, but maybe we can pull it off again.”

David Price will take the mound for the Blue Jays after his collapse in Game 2, when he tossed six shutout innings and then surrendered five runs in the seventh.

Yordano Ventura will oppose him for Kansas City. He was only marginally better, allowing three runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings before watching the comeback win from the dugout.

“I’m very fortunate and happy that this game has landed on my turn, here in Kansas City, and with the opportunity to take this club to the World Series,” Ventura said through catching coach Pedro Grifol, acting as a translator. “I’ll be ready for this game.”

The Blue Jays promise they will be, too.

Toronto lost the first two games against the Rangers at home, then won three straight with its season hanging in the balance. The first two were at Texas, and the last at Rogers Centre, but none of the victories was even close — all by at least three runs.

The Blue Jays lost the first two games in Kansas City, too. But in Game 3 in Toronto, the hosts overcame a 1-0 deficit and rolled to an 11-8 victory.

“We’ve been through a bunch of hurdles all year,” Blue Jays outfielder Chris Colabello said. “We were 7 1/2 games (back) at the deadlines. … We had to claw back from that. We were down two games back in the division series and we clawed back from that. I’ll tell you what, we’re going to leave everything we have out there.”

They may have to do just that. While the Blue Jays have won four straight elimination games, the Royals are 6-2 in their last eight postseason games at Kauffman Stadium.

Make no mistake, either: The ballpark matters in this series.

While the homer-happy Blue Jays were built with the small dimensions of Rogers Centre in mind, the speedy, defensive-minded Royals were built for their home park.

Not surprisingly, the Blue Jays failed to homer in the first two games of the ALCS in Kansas City, but hit four long balls in Toronto, including three in Game 3.

“Nothing but positivity. We’ve got a 3-2 lead and we’re heading back to Kansas City,” Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer said. “That’s where we play our best baseball, so everyone is still feeling pretty good about the series.”

The big question in Game 6 is which starting pitchers will show up.

For the Blue Jays, will it be the Price who was dominant for six innings earlier this series, recording 18 straight outs at one point? Or the rattled former Cy Young Award winner who, when an easy popup fell for a single, proceeded to allow five runs in defeat, falling to 0-7 in seven career playoff starts?

“I know what I’m capable of doing and I think everybody in this room knows what I’m capable of doing,” he said. “I just kind of want to do it too bad. And it’s long overdue for me to get a win as a starter in the playoffs, and I’ll be ready to change that story tomorrow.”

For the Royals, will it be the Ventura who tossed seven innings of three-hit ball in the must-win Game 6 of last year’s World Series? Or the shaky 24-year-old who has a 6.57 ERA in the postseason, and who was far from perfect in his first try against Toronto?

“I’m just happy to be able to bring the series back home to Kansas City,” he said, “and I’ll be ready tomorrow to pitch and perform for my club.”

— Associated Press —

TORONTO (AP) — Marco Estrada took the mound with one task: save the season for the Toronto Blue Jays.

He did it, pitching one-hit ball into the eighth inning to give Toronto’s tattered bullpen a rest, and the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 7-1 Wednesday to close to 3-2 in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.

“It’s the start that we needed,” shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. “They’re a great team over there. We know that. But this guy kept them off balance and allowed the offense to settle in and get some runs.”

Tulowitzki provided three of those runs. He broke the game open with a bases-clearing double off Kelvin Herrera in the sixth, giving him seven RBI in the series. Edwin Encarnacion had walked with the bases loaded against Edinson Volquez, who seemed flustered by a couple of close calls against the Royals.

Kansas City totaled 22 runs and 30 hits in the first two games in Toronto, but Estrada faced the minimum 20 batters before Lorenzo Cain walked with two outs in the seventh. Closer Roberto Osuna was perfect in the ninth.

Yordano Ventura will start for the defending AL champions on Friday in Game 6 against David Price, the Game 2 loser.

Estrada, a 32-year-old free-agent to be, kept the bullpen door closed for most of the afternoon, a day after Kansas City romped 14-2 in a game that saw infielder Cliff Pennington pitch in the ninth.

“This time around I had a better fastball command,” said Estrada, who gave up three runs in the opener. “That was the key to this game.”

Toronto is trying to become just the 13th team to rally and win among 80 who trailed 3-1 in best-of-seven postseason series. It has happened four of 17 times in the LCS, including when the Royals bounced back against the Blue Jays in 1985 en route to Kansas City’s only World Series title. In this year’s best-of-five Division Series, Toronto fell behind 0-2, then won three straight against Texas.

Before 49,325 roaring fans, Chris Colabello’s solo homer into the left-field seats in the second gave Estrada a lead. It was the only mistake by Volquez, the Game 1 winner.

Estrada didn’t make a miscue until Salvador Perez homered with two outs in the eighth. Estrada retired his first nine batters, ending at four Escobar’s record streak of leading off playoff games with hits.

Escobar, who entered 9 for 15 (.600), got Kansas City’s first hit when he opened the fourth with a ground single past a diving Tulowitzki.

Zobrist promptly grounded into a double play to second baseman Ryan Goins.

“He was really good today,” Escobar said. “He threw the ball down, down and away, down and in. He didn’t miss many pitches today.”

Kansas City had no other runners until Cain walked with two outs in the seventh. Price was up in the bullpen, but Estrada got Eric Hosmer to fly out.

Volquez allowed just two singles after Colabello connected but lost the strike zone in the sixth.

Ben Revere led off with a walk and Volquez hit Josh Donaldson with the first pitch. In August, Volquez hit Donaldson in a testy game that included a benches-clearing scrum.

He then walked Jose Bautista in a 10-pitch at-bat on a knuckle curve that looked to get a piece of the plate.

“I thought the pitch to Bautista was definitely a strike,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

Yost shouted from the dugout for Perez to appeal to first base on ball four, thinking Bautista may have swung. But it was too loud in the closed-roof stadium for Perez to hear.

“We were trying to get their attention to get him to appeal it,” Yost said. “I don’t know if he was arguing the pitch, I don’t know what he was talking about.”

Encarnacion walked on another pitch that upset Volquez and Yost. Volquez turned his back to plate umpire Dan Iassogna as Revere jogged home for a 2-0 lead. It was his last batter.

“When you lose your fastball command, it’s hard for the umpire to give you the close pitches,” Volquez said.

Herrera relieved and struck out Colabello. With the crowd chanting “Tu-lo! Tu-lo!” Tulowitzki sent a drive to the center-field wall, sending fans into a towel-waving frenzy.

Bautista and Donaldson had consecutive doubles off Danny Duffy in the seventh to make it 6-0, and Kevin Pillar doubled in a run in the eighth.

STREAK SNAPPED

Cain’s Royals-record 13-game postseason hitting streak was snapped. He went 0 for 3.

UP NEXT

Price took a 3-0 lead into the seventh inning of Game 2 but gave up five straight hits and lost his seventh straight postseason start. Ventura gave up three runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings.

— Associated Press —