TORONTO (AP) - Rougned Odor sidestepped another slide at second base against the Blue Jays and again threw the ball away.
In May, the play started a fight.
This time, it ended one.
Josh Donaldson raced home from second base after Odor bounced a double-play relay in the 10th inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers 7-6 to sweep their AL Division Series on Sunday night.
Texas led the American League with 95 wins but lost three straight to Toronto for a second straight ALDS exit.
“It hurts because we know we had a good team to accomplish what we wanted to do,” Rangers slugger Adrian Beltre said.
Beltre hit .182 with no homers and no RBIs as the Rangers were swept out of the postseason for the first time since back-to-back ALDS losses to the New York Yankees in 1998 and 1999.
Donaldson, the reigning AL MVP, led off the 10th with a double into the right-center field gap, and then Matt Bush intentionally walked Edwin Encarnacion.
After Jose Bautista struck out, Russell Martin hit a grounder to shortstop Elvis Andrus, who tried to start a double play with a feed to second base. After making the turn, second baseman Odor short-hopped his throw to first baseman Mitch Moreland and the ball skipped away, allowing Donaldson to sprint home and beat Moreland’s throw with a dive across the plate.
“Got the play we wanted,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “Good feed to Odor, just looked like he might have pulled the throw a little.”
Donaldson said he felt compelled to try and score when he saw the ball get away from Moreland.
“I was at third base when the throw was being made,” Donaldson said. “Once I saw (Moreland) miss the pick, I felt like I had to take a chance right there.”
Toronto’s bench emptied and swarmed around Donaldson near home plate, while Bush kneeled in the infield and watched the celebration. The umpires huddled to review the play at second base, but after a brief delay, the crowd of 49,555 went wild when crew chief Joe West signaled the run counted.
“It’s a hard way to lose a game,” Andrus said. “It doesn’t feel good at all but we gave everything we had.”
Bautista’s homer and emphatic bat flip in Game 5 was the lasting image from Toronto’s ALDS win over the Rangers last season. On May 15, Odor famously punched Bautista following a hard slide at second to spark a brawl in Texas, and the broadcast of Sunday’s game showed a fan-made sign declaring “I would rather get punched in May than get knocked out in October.”
Bush had thrown two scoreless innings in relief prior to beginning the 10th. It was the longest career outing for the 30-year-old rookie.
Donaldson had two doubles among his three hits and is batting .538 through four postseason games, all wins for the Blue Jays, who had to beat Baltimore in a wild-card game to get to the ALDS.
Toronto is headed back to the AL Championship Series after beating Texas in an ALDS for a second straight year and will face the winner of the Cleveland-Boston series. The Indians lead 2-0, with Game 3 scheduled for Monday following a postponement Sunday.
Banister was gracious in a defeat he acknowledged was “disappointing.”
“I tip my hat to (Toronto),” he said. “They played a tremendous series.”
Closer Roberto Osuna threw two perfect innings to get the win. His appearance capped 4 1/3 scoreless innings of one-hit ball by Toronto’s bullpen after starter Aaron Sanchez allowed six runs.
Encarnacion had a two-run homer and Martin a solo shot in the first inning for Toronto, which swept a postseason series for the first time.
“Unfortunately we didn’t click at the right time,” Andrus said. “They hit the ball well and never let us feel comfortable.”
Andrus hit a solo homer in the third and Odor added a two-run shot in the fourth. They were the only two homers of the series for Texas.
“We got cold at the worst moment,” Beltre said
Moreland gave Texas a 6-5 lead with a two-run double off Joe Biagini in the sixth, but Toronto responded in the bottom half when Troy Tulowitzki scored on Jonathan Lucroy’s bases-loaded passed ball.
Colby Lewis allowed five runs in two innings for Texas.
“He couldn’t get in a rhythm and get his pitches going,” Banister said.
The Rangers hadn’t lost on a game-ending play since June 30 against the Yankees.
OCTOBER SLUMP
Texas has lost six straight postseason games, all to Toronto. The Rangers have lost nine of their past 11 postseason games, including the final two games of the 2011 World Series.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Blue Jays: 2B Devon Travis (right knee) sat out his second straight game but was available off the bench. Travis, who was scratched from the lineup Friday, had a cortisone shot Saturday.
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