NEW YORK (AP) — The Kansas City Royals keep finding new ways to win this October. And now with one more victory in November, they will be World Series champions.

Second baseman Daniel Murphy’s error on Eric Hosmer’s grounder in the eighth inning keyed yet another comeback for the tenacious Royals, and Kansas City startled the New York Mets 5-3 Saturday night to take 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Edinson Volquez returned Saturday from his father’s funeral in the Dominican Republic and gets a chance to pitch the Royals to their first World Series title in 30 years. He faces Matt Harvey in a rematch of Game 1, when Volquez went six innings just hours after his dad died.

Seemingly spooked by the raucous New York crowd early on Halloween, the Royals rallied for the seventh time in 10 postseason victories this year, this one from a 3-2 deficit. Rookie Michael Conforto homered twice as the Mets built their lead.

Murphy’s charmed October slipped away as the calendar was an hour from flipping to a new month.

With runners on first and second on a pair of one-out walks by Tyler Clippard, Jeurys Familia relieved. So steady in his new role as closer this year, Familia had allowed Alex Gordon’s ninth-inning, tying homer in a Game 1 loss.

This time, he came on with a 3-2 lead and got Hosmer to hit a soft grounder toward Murphy as 44,815 fans stood, waving their orange towels in hopes of an inning-ending double play.

But the slow chopper sneaked under the glove of the NL Championship Series MVP as he charged in. Murphy, who would’ve only had a play at first, appeared to glance at the runner and failed to get his glove down. The ball rolled helplessly toward right field, and Ben Zobrist raced home from second base as Familia crouched on the mound.

Surely no one in the silenced Citi Field stands expected this scary ending. It got worse for the Mets in a hurry, too.

Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez followed with RBI singles to break away.

Ryan Madson pitched a perfect seventh for the win, and Wade Davis worked two scoreless innings for his first save.

Not known for his defense, Murphy still made every play look easy in the NLCS and almost single-handedly slugged the Mets to their first World Series since 1986 with seven homers in nine playoff games. He has slumped in the Fall Classic but had a one-out infield single in the ninth.

Yoenis Cespedes followed with another single, but he was doubled off first base when Lucas Duda hit an easy liner to third base and Moustakas tossed it to first to finish off another incredible comeback for the Royals.

— Associated Press —

NEW YORK (AP) — Two balls launched over the wall, one fired over an opponent’s head and just like that, David Wright and the New York Mets are right back in this World Series.

Wright homered and drove in four runs, Curtis Granderson also connected and rookie Noah Syndergaard set a nasty tone at the start of a 9-3 victory against the Kansas City Royals that trimmed New York’s deficit to 2-1 Friday night.

“We get our offense going a little bit, we play better baseball,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.

Shut down at the plate in Kansas City, the Mets broke loose with 12 hits from nine different players as they chased Yordano Ventura early during the first Series game at Citi Field.

Pitching on Halloween eve, Syndergaard recovered from a scary start and went six innings, giving the Mets the winning performance they didn’t get from fellow young starters Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom at Kauffman Stadium.

“Real big game for us,” Collins said. “He delivered. He came through exactly as we expected.”

Another rookie, hometown favorite Steven Matz, tries to pull New York even Saturday night in Game 4 when he faces 36-year-old Chris Young and the Royals.

After the Mets fell behind in the first inning, Granderson started the bottom half with a single and Wright hit his first World Series home run, recharging a packed crowd of 44,781 that included Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Dennis Miller.

The captain, who entered batting .182 without an RBI in his first World Series, added a two-run single on Kelvin Herrera’s first pitch during a four-run sixth that broke it open. Pinch-hitter Juan Uribe, just back from a chest injury, had an RBI single in his first plate appearance since Sept. 25. Slumping slugger Yoenis Cespedes added a sacrifice fly.

Hoping to rekindle the comeback spirit of 1986, when the Mets rallied from an 0-2 World Series hole to beat Boston for their most recent championship, the team played its highlight video from that year on the large scoreboard during batting practice.

Local boy Billy Joel sang the national anthem, same as 29 years ago at Shea Stadium, and Syndergaard caught everyone’s attention with his first delivery to aggressive leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar.

Well aware of Escobar’s penchant for attacking the first pitch — the ALCS MVP opened Game 1 against New York with an inside-the-park homer — Syndergaard promised Thursday he had “a few tricks” up his sleeve for Escobar.

That turned out to be a 97 mph fastball fired just off the inside corner and way over Escobar’s head, eliciting a huge cheer from fans. The skinny shortstop went down to the dirt on his rear end and stayed there, legs splayed, catching his breath for several seconds.

“That surprised me,” Escobar said. “They said yesterday he said to the media, I have a plan for Escobar. That’s not a good plan. If you want to throw me inside, you can throw me down. You don’t need to throw to my head.”

Kansas City players spent the next few innings shouting at Syndergaard from the dugout.

“I think the whole team was pretty upset. The first pitch of the game goes whizzing by our leadoff man’s head,” Mike Moustakas said. “I think all 25 guys in that dugout were pretty fired up.”

Escobar whiffed on a 99 mph heater, yet the Royals hardly looked intimidated as they scored three runs in the first two innings.

Ben Zobrist doubled and scored on a groundout by Eric Hosmer that gave him 16 RBI in 14 postseason games this year. Alex Rios had an RBI single in the second, and another run scored on Travis d’Arnaud’s passed ball.

But the Royals ran themselves out of a chance at a bigger inning when Alex Gordon was thrown out at third by rookie left fielder Michael Conforto, the safe call reversed following a replay review.

Syndergaard was a little shaky fielding his position but helped himself at the plate. He singled leading off the third ahead of Granderson’s second homer of the Series, a line drive off Ventura into the front row of seats in the right-field corner.

“He just wasn’t sharp,” Royals manager Ned Yost said about his starter. “Fastball velocity was down. Made a couple mistakes.”

That put the Mets ahead to stay at 4-3, making it the first World Series game with three lead changes in the first three innings, according to STATS.

WELCOME TO THE BIG SHOW

Raul A. Mondesi, added to Kansas City’s roster Tuesday, became the first player to make his major league debut in the World Series. The 20-year-old son of 1994 NL Rookie of the Year Raul Mondesi pinch-hit in the fifth inning and struck out on four pitches.

POWER FIRST

New York’s leadoff hitter has a Game 3 homer in four of the club’s five trips to the World Series. Tommie Agee (1969), Wayne Garrett (1973) and Lenny Dykstra (1986) all went deep to start the game. Granderson waited until the third inning Friday — though the Mets did get a home run from their second batter of the night

UP NEXT

Royals: Young won the opener in relief Tuesday, throwing 53 pitches and striking out four over three hitless innings. “My body feels fine,” he said. “I’m not worried about bouncing back.” The 6-foot-10 Princeton product, who has overcome a string of substantial injuries, went 5-9 in 24 starts for the Mets from 2011-12.

Mets: Matz made all of six major league starts during the regular season, and his World Series assignment is storybook stuff. The 24-year-old lefty from Long Island grew up a Mets fan about 50 miles from Citi Field. He planned to sleep at his parents’ home Friday night and commute to the ballpark, just as he’s done for much of his rookie season. “We’re on off hours, so there’s not much traffic. It’s not too terrible,” Matz said. “It’s been pretty awesome to be able to do that.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alex Gordon hit a tying home run with one out in the ninth inning, Eric Hosmer hit a sacrifice fly against Bartolo Colon in the 14th and the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets 5-4 Tuesday night in the longest opener in World Series history.

Making his Series debut at age 42, Colon escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 12th, then got out of trouble again after allowing a leadoff hit in the 13th.

Alcides Escobar, who hit an inside-the-park home run on Matt Harvey’s first pitch of the night, reached leading off the 14th on an error by third baseman David Wright, who bobbled his grounder and then made a wide throw that pulled Lucas Duda off first base.

Ben Zobrist singled him to third and Lorenzo Cain was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Hosmer flied to right, and Escobar scored standing up ahead of Curtis Granderson’s throw.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Royals will send Edinson Volquez to the mound in Game 1 of the World Series, choosing their most consistent starter to lead things off against the New York Mets. The more volatile Johnny Cueto will go in Game 2.

Royals manager Ned Yost announced his rotation Monday, the day the Series gets started at Kauffman Stadium. Yordano Ventura will get the ball when the teams head to Citi Field in New York for Game 3 on Friday, with veteran Chris Young offering a change of pace in Game 4.

“We wanted Johnny Cueto in Game 2 because Johnny really feeds off the home crowd, and we’re able to have Johnny in Game 2 and Game 6 here at home,” Yost said. “We think that gives us a bit of advantage having Johnny pitching at home in front of our home crowd.”

The Mets will start Matt Harvey in Game 1, followed by Jacob deGrom. Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz will follow in the first two games at Citi Field.

Volquez was 13-9 with a 3.55 ERA during the season as the replacement for departed veteran James Shields. And while he was just 1-2 with a 4.32 ERA in three playoff starts, he did toss six innings of two-hit ball to beat Toronto in the AL Championship Series opener.

“It’s a great honor to pitch in this game, especially pitching at home,” said Volquez, who had never made it past the divisional round in two previous postseason appearances.

“I don’t have to do anything different than what I’ve been doing,” he said. “I’ve got to stay focused in what you’re doing, especially this game, because this is a World Series game. You don’t have too many chances to make a lot of mistakes in those games.”

Cueto certainly knows the fine line between devastating and disastrous.

Spurred by the crowd at Kauffman Stadium, he allowed two runs on two hits over eight innings against Houston in the decisive Game 5 of their divisional series. But in a hostile environment in Toronto, he was hammered for eight runs in two innings, joining A.J. Burnett as the only pitchers to allow 11 baserunners in a playoff start lasting two or fewer innings.

Cueto said Monday the miserable outing is firmly in the past, and he’s prepared to do exactly what the Royals expected of him when they acquired him at the trade deadline.

“They brought me here for this,” he said. “That’s what they brought me here for, and I have to give it my all to make sure that the team that brought me here finishes off as champions.”

Ventura will start Game 3, in part, because he wouldn’t have been ready to pitch the series opener after starting Game 6 of the championship series. Young earned the final starting spot over Kris Medlen on the strength of his solid performance in Game 4 against the Blue Jays.

The two dovetail nicely, too. Ventura relies on a blistering fastball and hard-breaking curve, while Young provides a completely different look with his array of off-speed stuff.

“If we brought back Ventura in Game 1, he would have been a day early. We didn’t want that,” Yost said. “We really like Chris Young in Game 4. He’s a guy that it doesn’t matter — there is nothing that’s going to distract him. There’s nothing that’s going to slow him down.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Royals earned another champagne shower at Kauffman Stadium.

Lorenzo Cain sprinted home from first base on Eric Hosmer’s single in the eighth inning, Wade Davis weathered a 45-minute rain delay and a white-knuckle ninth, and Kansas City beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 Friday night to earn its second straight trip to the World Series.

Davis retired Blue Jays star Josh Donaldson on a grounder with runners on second and third to end Game 6 of the AL Championship Series.

The Royals open the World Series on Tuesday night at home against the New York Mets. A year ago, they lost in Game 7 to San Francisco.

“We came in with one goal and that was to get back to the World Series. It can’t be any better than this,” Cain said.

Jose Bautista’s second homer of the game, a two-run shot in the top of the eighth, lifted Toronto into a 3-3 tie.

But any momentum Toronto might have had was washed away when a line of rain swept through town, sending players and fans scurrying for cover.

After the delay, Cain promptly worked a leadoff walk from closer Roberto Osuna, and Hosmer followed with a clean single that Bautista fielded down the right-field line.

Rather than hit the cutoff man, though, Bautista threw to second to keep Hosmer to a single. That gave the speedy Cain, running full speed the entire way and being waved home by third base coach Mike Jirschele, enough time to beat the relay throw from second base with a textbook slide that ignited a sellout crowd.

“I was hustling all the way,” Cain said. “I don’t know what happened I just kept going.”

Then it was up to Davis, who got the Royals out of a jam in the eighth, to finish it off.

Davis gave up a single to Russell Martin and walked Kevin Pillar before striking out pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro. After stolen bases put runners on second and third, Davis struck out Ben Revere, then got Donaldson on a bouncer to third.

Kansas City shortstop Alcides Escobar was voted the ALCS MVP after going 11 for 23 (.478). And for the fifth time in two years, the Royals clinched a postseason series at home.

“The made a run at it,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “I really couldn’t be more proud of our guys. They laid it out every day, they’re great competitors and a fun bunch, fun to be around every day.”

Ben Zobrist and Mike Moustakas homered, and Alex Rios also drove in a run for Kansas City, which ended an embarrassing 29-year postseason drought just last season.

The Royals eventually swept their way to the World Series, where they succumbed to the Giants in Game 7 with the tying run standing 90 feet away.

Kansas City will try to do one win better against the Mets. The Royals last won the crown in 1985.

For the Blue Jays, it was a frustrating ending to a late-season surge that ended their own postseason drought dating to 1993. They had rallied from a 2-0 series deficit against Texas in the divisional round, then staved off elimination against the Royals in Game 5 in Toronto.

They simply couldn’t win their sixth straight elimination game.

The Royals wasted no time taking the lead off David Price, the Blue Jays ace who has been so good during the regular season but remains winless in eight career postseason starts.

Zobrist pounced on the tall left-hander in the first inning, pulling a 1-1 pitch from his old Tampa Bay teammate down the left-field line. Zobrist’s second homer of the series gave Kansas City the lead and sent a capacity crowd of 40,494 into a towel-waving frenzy.

They hardly stopped by the time Moustakas came to bat in the second.

After scrawling the initials of his late mother, Connie, into the dirt with the end of his bat, Moustakas sent a 1-2 pitch from Price screaming over the fence in right. The ball was caught by a fan, 19-year-old Caleb Humphreys of nearby Blue Springs, Missouri, and the umpires briefly reviewed whether fan interference should be called on the play.

The review lasted 1 minute, 47 seconds, before crew chief John Hirschbeck announced that the replays were inconclusive. The home run stood and Kansas City had a 2-0 lead.

Rios added an RBI single in the seventh, but only after two marvelous plays by Toronto limited the damage. Revere made a leaping grab at the fence to rob Salvador Perez of a two-run shot to left, and second baseman Ryan Goins made a sliding grab to rob Alex Gordon of a single.

The defensive plays proved critical when Ryan Madson came on to pitch the eighth.

Madson allowed a leadoff single to Revere, and then struck out Donaldson, before peering in at Bautista in the box. The home run hitter who irked Kansas City fans all series followed his solo shot in the first inning with a tying, two-run homer to left that silenced the crowd — other than the smattering of boos directed at Madson on the mound.

The home run squandered a strong start by Yordano Ventura, who allowed only Bautista’s first homer of the series and three other harmless hits in 5 1/3 innings. But it didn’t seem to dent the confidence of the Royals, who have grown accustomed to tense postseason games.

There’s a reason they were defending American League champions, after all.

— Associated Press —

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 —

TORONTO (AP) — Whether it’s a long ball by Ben Zobrist, a slashing single from Lorenzo Cain or another exhilarating trip around the bases for Alcides Escobar, these Kansas City Royals are relentless — and one win from a return trip to the World Series.

Zobrist hit a two-run homer on knuckleballer R.A. Dickey’s fourth pitch of the game, Alex Rios connected an inning later and the Royals romped past the Toronto Blue Jays 14-2 on Tuesday for a 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series.

“We’re very confident,” Rios said. “We have a very well-balanced team from top to bottom.”

Cain scored on a passed ball and Mike Moustakas had a sacrifice fly in an LCS-record four-run top of the first. The 12-run gap represents the largest margin of victory by a road team in AL postseason history and fourth-largest margin in overall playoff history, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Escobar had four RBIs and Cain drove in three runs as the Royals bounced back from an 11-8 loss Monday. Kansas City led 5-2 in the seventh before breaking away.

Blue Jays infielder Cliff Pennington relieved in the ninth inning, becoming the first primarily position player to pitch in the postseason, STATS said. Greeted by cheers, he allowed two hits and got one out.

“The circumstances aren’t what you want,” Pennington said of his first pitching appearance.

Kansas City can win the pennant Wednesday, when Edinson Volquez starts against Toronto’s Marco Estrada in a Game 1 rematch.

“It’s a do-or-die game for us,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “But they do it all year. I think these guys will let this one go and they’ll show up to play tomorrow. … I know these guys will be ready.”

After flashing power to build a 5-0 lead on the long ball, the Royals returned to their pesky ways late in the game against the Blue Jays’ struggling bullpen. They scored nine runs with three more sacrifice flies, a barrage of slashing hits and heads-up baserunning.

“We’re a good offensive team,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said. “Our park, our style of play is a little different. We like to use our legs and be athletic, but when we come to some of these parks where the fences aren’t as deep, we’ve got some guys that can put the ball in the seats.”

Blue Jays fans had seen enough after Cain’s two-run single in the eighth, turning their ever-optimistic cheers to jeers when Mark Lowe replaced Ryan Tepera.

Chris Young, 36, bested Dickey, 40, in a bookish matchup of veteran starters — only the pairing of the Yankees’ Randy Johnson and Detroit’s Kenny Rogers in the 2006 AL Division Series tops the duo for combined age.

But just like his counterpart’s effort in Game 4 of the division series against Texas, the 6-foot-10 Young was lifted one out shy of qualifying for a victory when Ned Yost went to his bullpen with a runner on first with two outs in the fifth. Yost wasn’t willing to take any chances against Josh Donaldson, who already had an RBI double.

“It’s not about personal stuff,” Young said. “It’s just feels great to contribute to such a great team win.”

Dickey never had a chance to get that first playoff victory in a 13-year big league career.

Escobar got a hit leading off for the fourth straight game, starting this one with a bunt down the third-base line. Zobrist connected for his first homer of the ALCS.

Rios homered against his former team in the second for a 5-0 lead. Booed all series by his old fans, he didn’t get any extra satisfaction out of the hit.

“It’s just another team we have to go out and beat,” Rios said.

After Dickey hit Escobar with a pitch — a call that needed replay review to get it right — he walked Cain one out later and was done after 1⅔ innings.

Young used that steep arm angle to outwit the powerful Jays, who were 53-28 at home in the regular season but just 11-14 with the roof closed — which it was Tuesday.

He held them hitless until Ryan Goins’ one-out single in the third. Donaldson drove him home with a ground-rule double down the left-field line on an 83 mph slider. Jose Bautista added an RBI grounder to close the gap to 5-2 and get those white towels twirling at Rogers Centre.

But Luke Hochevar, Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Franklin Morales shut down the Blue Jays the rest of the way.

Kansas City’s four-spot in the seventh made it 9-2. Escobar and Hosmer had sacrifice flies to deep center, Cain singled to extend his postseason hitting streak to 13 games and Alex Gordon scored on Tepera’s wild pitch.

Cain hit a two-run single in the eighth, and Escobar drove in two off Pennington in the ninth.

“We feel good. We like the way we’re playing right now,” Yost said. “Our offense has been really, really good.”

EMERGENCY

Blue Jays reliever Aaron Loup got a call after the game began and had to leave the team for personal reasons, Gibbons said. The Blue Jays’ manager didn’t know whether he would be allowed to replace the pitcher on the roster.

UP NEXT

Volquez pitched two-hit ball for six innings in a 5-0 win in the opener and recalled telling catcher Salvador Perez, “I feel sexy throwing down and away.” Estrada gave up three runs and six hits in 5⅓ innings.

— Associated Press —

TORONTO (AP) — Josh Donaldson and the slugging Toronto Blue Jays were eager to return to their homer dome after dropping the first two games of the AL Championship Series in Kansas City.

They showed everyone why.

The Blue Jays came out swinging and their rowdy fans were singing from the start, with Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki connecting in a six-run third inning as Toronto roughed up Johnny Cueto and the Royals for an 11-8 victory that cut Kansas City’s series lead to 2-1.

Ryan Goins also homered and had a two-run single a game after his misplayed pop fly set off Kansas City’s winning rally Sunday.

The resilient Royals tried to come back this time, too, scoring four runs in the ninth before Roberto Osuna closed it out.

Veteran knuckleballer R.A. Dickey will try to get the Blue Jays even in the best-of-seven series Tuesday afternoon. He faces Kansas City’s 6-foot-10 right-hander Chris Young in Game 4.

Despite being outhit 15-11 by the pesky Royals, Toronto pounced on Kansas City’s pitching in the first ALCS game in Toronto since 1993 for their most runs ever at home in the postseason — after scoring just three in two games in Kansas City.

The Blue Jays needed them, too. Kansas City scored four times off starter Marcus Stroman and then added four in the ninth, capped by Kendrys Morales’ two-run homer off Osuna.

Seemingly not distracted by the contentious federal elections that were being held in Canada on Monday, 49,751 fans serenaded Cueto with a sing-song “Cueto-Cueto!” chant from the game’s first pitch and never quieted down.

The Royals took a quick lead when Alcides Escobar led off the game with a sinking liner that went under right fielder Jose Bautista’s glove for a triple off Stroman. Ben Zobrist drove in Escobar with a grounder, but that was the only advantage Kanas City would hold in having its nine-game ALCS winning streak snapped. The string dated to the 1985 series against Toronto.

Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar quashed that rally with a fantastic, over-the-shoulder catch that sent him crashing into the wall.

After an easy first, Cueto appeared flustered by the crowd. Eleven of his remaining 13 batters reached and at one point in the third inning he threw his hands up in frustration after gesturing for a new cycle of signs from catcher Salvador Perez.

Goins singled in two runs in the second after Tulowitzki singled with one out and Russell Martin was hit by a pitch that knocked off his left elbow guard. Goins pulled into second on the throw home and shouted and pumped his arms.

David Price, the losing pitcher in Game 2, led the cheering from the top step of the dugout.

When Goins scored on Donaldson’s hit, he was greeted first by the enthusiastic Stroman.

Entering in a 4-for-29 postseason slump, Tulowitzki connected for the Blue Jays’ first ALCS homer after Edwin Encarnacion singled and Chris Colabello walked to start the third.

Tulowitzki got a rare playoff ejection for arguing balls and strikes before the top of the eighth. He struck out looking in the seventh.

Cueto was coming off a dominant eight-inning performance in Game 5 of the ALDS, retiring his last 19 batters. But after giving up Pillar’s RBI double in the third, he was done.

The dreadlocked Dominican gave up six hits and eight runs in two-plus innings. He walked four and hit a batter with a pitch. As fans sang Cueto off the field, he smiled and tossed his gum near the Royals dugout.

Donaldson connected two batters after Kris Medlen entered for a 9-2 lead, and Goins homered off Medlen in the fifth as Toronto matched its postseason best with three homers in a game. The Blue Jays also hit three against Texas in Game 4 of the ALDS.

Stroman gave up two runs in the fifth on a wild pitch and an RBI single in an uncharacteristic performance for the 24-year-old who returned from a torn knee ligament in March to go 4-0 down the stretch and get the win in Game 5 of the ALDS. He allowed four runs and 11 hits.

But many Blue Jays fans were confident enough with a 10-4 lead to sing “Happy Birthday” to Bautista when he came to bat in the sixth. Bautista drove in a run in the eighth.

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The bookish Young, a Princeton grad, and Dickey, who has talked about his desire to be a teacher, were twice teammates, with Texas (2003-04) and the Mets (2011-12). Young hasn’t started since Oct. 2, but pitched in relief in Game 1 of the Division Series. Dickey was lifted with two outs in the fifth against Texas in the Division Series with Toronto leading by six runs.

— Associated Press —