TORONTO — Ben Zobrist and the relentless Kansas City Royals showed they can play home run derby, too. With one more win, they’ll have a chance to show off their power in a return trip to the World Series.
Zobrist hit a two-run home run on starter R.A. Dickey’s fourth pitch, Alex Rios connected with one an inning later and the Royals routed the Toronto Blue Jays, 14-2, on Tuesday in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series to move one win from a second consecutive World Series appearance.
Kansas City can win the pennant on Wednesday, when Edinson Volquez starts against Toronto’s Marco Estrada in a Game 1 rematch.
Lorenzo Cain scored on a passed ball and Mike Moustakas had a sacrifice fly in an four-run top of the first inning.
Alcides Escobar had four RBI and Cain drove in three runs as the Royals bounced back from an 11-8 loss on Monday. Kansas City led, 5-2, in the seventh inning before breaking away.
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.
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 Madson.
Chris Young, 36, bested Dickey, the 40-year-old knuckleballer, in a bookish matchup of veteran starters. Only the pairing of the New York Yankees’ Randy Johnson and the Detroit Tigers’ Kenny Rogers in the AL Division Series tops the duo for combined age.
Just like his counterpart’s effort in Game 4 of the Division Series against the Texas Rangers, the 6-foot-10 Young was lifted one out shy of qualifying for a victory when manager 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 a ground-rule double that cut Toronto’s deficit to 5-2.
Dickey never had a chance to get that first playoff victory in a 13-year big league career.
Escobar led off with a hit for the fourth consecutive game, starting this one with a bunt down the third-base line. Zobrist connected for his first home run of the ALCS.
Rios hit the home run against his former team in the second inning for the 5-0 lead. 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 1 2/3 innings.
Young used that steep arm angle to outwit the powerful Blue Jays, who were 53-28 at home in the regular season but were just 11-14 with the roof closed, as it was on 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, but Luke Hochevar, Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Franklin Morales shut down the Blue Jays the rest of the way.
Kansas City’s four-run seventh inning 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 Ryan Tepera’s wild pitch.
Cain hit a two-run single in the eighth, and Escobar drove in two off shortstop Cliff Pennington, who became the first position player to pitch in the postseason when he entered in the ninth. Greeted by cheers, Pennington allowed two hits and got one out.
Volquez pitched two-hit ball for six innings in a 5-0 win in the series opener. Estrada gave up three runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings.
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