October 6, 2016; Arlington, TX, USA; Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista (19) hits a three run home run in the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers during game one of the 2016 ALDS playoff baseball game at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Photo Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
ARLINGTON, Texas — Marco Estrada allowed four hits in 8 1/3 innings and the Toronto Blue Jays battered Cole Hamels for seven runs and took Game 1 of the American League Division Series 10-1 Thursday.
Toronto, which eliminated the Rangers in the ALDS last year, will look to take a 2-0 lead Friday in Arlington. The Rangers are now 1-10 in ALDS games in Arlington.
Estrada gave up a first-inning single to Adrian Beltre and then retired 12-straight Rangers before Elvis Andrus opened the sixth with a single to center. Estrada struck out six, didn’t walk a batter and threw just 98 pitches. His start was the longest in Toronto postseason history.
Estrada was pitching with a big cushion as the Jays jumped on Hamels for five runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth, ending his start after just 3 1/3 innings.
Josh Donaldson’s liner skimmed off Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre’s glove to bring in the first run in the third. Two batters later, Jose Bautista’s single pushed the lead to 2-0. After Hamels walked Russell Martin to load the bases, Troy Tulowitzki cleared them with a three-run triple to right-center.
Bautista punctuated the scoring with a long three-run homer in the ninth.
Toronto, which finished with 13 hits, wasn’t done hammering Hamels. Melvin Upton Jr. hammered a leadoff homer in the fourth before Donaldson ended Hamels’ day with an RBI single. Hamels walked three and allowed six hits in his second-shortest outing of the season.
Donaldson had four hits, a walk, an RBI and scored twice. Bautista had two hits and four RBIs and Tulowitzki had three hits.
Andrus had two of the four Texas hits and scored the lone run in the ninth inning after a leadoff triple.
NOTES: The Rangers put OF Shin-Soo Choo on the roster for the series after he played in final three games of the season. Texas LHP Derek Holland wasn’t on the roster as the Rangers opted to have just seven relief pitchers on the roster. … INF Ryan Goins, who played in 77 games for the Jays this season, was left off the roster for Toronto. … Texas LHP Cole Hamels became just the 14th pitcher in history to start at least six Game 1s in postseason play. … In their 5-2 win in the American League wild-card game, the Blue Jays’ bullpen became the second to throw at least five hitless innings in a postseason game. The only other team to do that was San Francisco in Game 1 of the 2012 National League Championship Series. … Rangers DH Carlos Beltran is now one of eight position players to have played for at least five different clubs in postseason history.
