Watch live online as the Toronto Blue Jays storm into Kansas City to take on the Royals with a World Series berth on the line , as American League Championship Series action gets underway on Friday with Game One — after just a single day of rest after both teams clinched the right to be there in dramatic Division Series Game Five wins Wednesday. But the Royals and Blue Jays bring not only a desire to get back to the World Series into the best-of-seven series, they also bring considerable bad blood from a bench-clearing brawl in August.
In that August 2 incident, Royals pitcher Edinson Volquez called Toronto MVP candidate Josh Donaldson “a little baby,” while Donaldson retorted by sneering that Volquez was “some pretty good hitting.”
Whether Donaldson still finds Volquez to be “pretty good hitting” will be answered Friday, because 32-year-old Volquez, an 11-year veteran in his first season with the Royals, will start for Kansas City in ALCS Game One .
To date, Donaldson has not really backed up his boast , facing Volquez just three times in his career, with no hits, a strikeout, and a walk.
For Toronto, 32-year-old, eight-year veteran Marco Estrada — also in his first season with his present club — brings a 13-8 regular season record and 3.13 ERA into the ALCS Game One start. Estrada faced Kansas City just once in 2015, taking the loss despite pitching 6 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs on nine hits and a walk.
The Blue Jays will also need to deal with an emotional letdown following one of most dramatic and bizarre come-from-behind playoff victories in recent memory when, in the seventh inning, the Rangers committed three straight errors and Toronto slugger Jose Bautista blasted a three-run homer topped off by an emphatic bat-flip that was as much the topic of conversation the next day as the incredible seventh inning itself.
To find out how to watch the Toronto Blue Jays vs. Kansas City Royals American League Championship Series Game One live online, see the streaming information in the final paragraph of this article. Game time is set for 7:07 p.m. Central Time on Friday, October 16, at Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Viewers in the Eastern Time Zone can watch the live stream at 8:07 p.m., and in the Pacific Time Zone, 5:07 p.m.
The two franchises have met in the postseason before, in 1985 , the first year that the League Championship Series were expanded to best-of-seven from their previous three-of-five format. Back in that year, the Blue Jays took a 3-1 series lead, winning the first two games at home — but then collapsed as the Royals won three straight to advance to the World Series, which they won over the St. Louis Cardinals.
But the Royals, a team founded in 1969 when the Major Leagues expanded from 10 to 12 teams each and introduced divisional play, had not been back to the postseason after 1985 until last year and have not won a World Series since then, losing in 2014 in seven games to the San Francisco Giants.
The Toronto Blue Jays, who joined the AL as an expansion franchise in 1977, won back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993, and will be appearing in their sixth ALCS — in their first year back in the playoffs since that second World Series victory.
The Royals and Blue Jays have faced each other 379 times in the regular season, with Toronto winning 194 and Kansas City winning 185.
Can the Toronto Blue Jays strike the first blow in the best-four-out-of-seven ALCS? Or will the Kansas City Royals take the first step to their second straight World Series appearance? To find out, watch the Toronto Blue Jays vs. Kansas City Royals American League Championship Series Game One live online from Kansas City, Missouri, by going to Fox Sports Go at this link , or downloading the Fox Sports Go app to watch on mobile devices. Fox Sports Go also streams live on the Amazon Fire TV device, allowing fans to watch the Blue Jays vs. Royals game live online on their TV sets.
[Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com ]
[Featured Image: Tom Szczerbowski / Getty Images]
