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I suspect many of you will be paying close attention to the American League Championship Series, because if the Cubs win the NLCS, one of these two teams will be the opponent.
The Royals and Blue Jays have LCS history. They met 30 years ago, in 1985, in a year when everything seemed aligned for Toronto in its first postseason appearance. The Jays won 99 games, most in the American League that year, and had a terrific pitching staff that allowed the fewest runs in the league. I was in Toronto for a wedding in early September 1985 and remember how crazy the whole town was over the Jays.
They took a three-games-to-one lead in the LCS and lost the set to KC. We've been there, so I understand that.
The Royals won the World Series that year. The Blue Jays won two World Series in the early 1990s, but those are the last WS wins for either of these teams.
Kansas City was as many as 31 games over .500 and 14 games ahead in their division as late as early September, but they had a bad final month (11-17 in September, including a loss to the Cubs at Wrigley, before going 4-0 in October regular-season games). They beat the Astros in the division series, but had to go five games to do it.
The Blue Jays were under .500 (45-46) at the All-Star break and then, helped by the acquisition of David Price at the deadline and an offense that wouldn't quit, went 40-18 from August 1 through season's end, outscoring their opponents 341-224.
The Royals have last year's postseason experience to build on. The Blue Jays have a powerful offense and, in addition to Price, Marcus Stroman and Marco Estrada as solid starters. Should be a good series.
The game is on Fox-TV -- the OTA broadcast channel in your market (WFLD-Ch. 32 in Chicago). Announcers: Joe Buck, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci. This will be the only LCS game on an OTA channel; the rest of the ALCS will be on FS1.
This will be the only thread for tonight's game. Enjoy, and discuss amongst yourselves.