The Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals are playing Game 1 of the ALCS on Friday night and the matchup is live on TV from Fox Sports. The game is from Kauffman Stadium and starts up past 8 pm ET with Marcos Estrada taking on Edinson Volquez and players like Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez will be looking to get the 1-0 series lead in the American League Championship.
The Royals were in the World Series last season after a long drought of not making the playoffs and the Blue Jays snapped some steaks by making it this year. The team had not won a playoff game or made the playoffs since winning the World Series in the 90s and now they have the chance to make it again. The Jays were a middling team in the middle of the season, but the trade deadline changed everything and propelled the team to where they are now.
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Check here for the play by play, stats, updates, box score and score for the ALCS.
The team added some depth players and also traded for superstars in David Price and Troy Tulowitzki and now the team is four wins away from playing for a title. The NL has the Mets and Cubs facing off and this series will open up first at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals were the top team in the AL and they added an impact player in Johnny Cueto at the trade deadline. Cueto was his usual self in Game 5 after struggling a bit for the Royals and he helped pitch the team into the ALCS for the second straight season.
The Blue Jays and Royals are very even when it comes to comparing position players and this series has the potential to go the distance. The Royals are a very good team, but they had to play five against the Astros, while the Jays went five against the Rangers. The Rangers and Jays just played one of the wildest games in MLB playoffs history and Kansas City is likely happy that they do not have to jump right into the fan craziness in Toronto after how that game turned out. KC fans are also very loud and the atmosphere at Kauffman should be energetic.
Ben Zobrist was another deadline deal for the Royals and he has come up big and he has previous World Series experience from his time in Tampa Bay. Kendrys Morales has been the most consistent power hitter for the Royals and the team is hoping he can keep that up in this series. Morales had a big home run in Game 5 and the team is going to have to score runs if they want to keep up with the big bats of Toronto.
