Toronto Defeats St. Louis in Five Games

St. Louis (AP) - The Toronto Blue Jays eliminated the St. Louis Cardinals four games to one in a closely contested quarter-finals playoff series.  Although the series ended in just five games, the playoff match was much closer than it appeared as four of the five games were decided by one run.  And, three of the games were walk off wins.  A recap of the series:

GAME 1:  TOR 5, STL 4 (15) – Lots of tense moments in the opener as the Blue Jays finally broke through in the bottom of the 15th.  Adrian Beltre hit a walk off rbi-double after a costly Redbird error by Anthony Rendon.  Koji Uehara got the win in relief as the strong Blue Jay bullpen pitched 7 1/3 innings of scoreless relief while only allowing two hits.

GAME 2:   TOR 3, STL 2 – Another walk off win for the Jays.  In the top of the ninth, the Cardinals rallied to tie the game at 2-2 vs. Blue Jays’ closer Chapman.  But, then in the bottom of the inning, Toronto’s Justin Turner hit a 2-out walk off double against Drew Storen.  Chapman gets the win in relief while Mike Dunn takes the loss.

GAME 3:   STL 1, TOR 0  – Alcides Escobar executed a walk-off suicide squeeze play to perfection in the bottom of the 9th to give the Cardinals the win.  In another tense one run struggle, each team only managed two hits.  The win went to Kelvin Herrera who allowed no runs in 1 inning. The loss was charged to Tony Sipp in relief.

GAME 4:  TOR 6, STL 5 – Fourth straight one run ball game.  Nelson Cruz and Justin Turner hit homeruns off Francisco Liriano to jump out to an early 5-1 lead.  But, the Cardinals chipped away to reduce the deficit to just one run entering the top of the 9th.  Then, Aroldis Chapman promptly struck out the side to preserve the win. 

GAME 5:  TOR 4, STL 2 – Henderson Alvarez outpitched Jacob DeGrom as Toronto advances to the semi-finals to face Seattle.  Chapman pitched a scoreless ninth to gain his second save in the series.