With a sighing exhale of relief, the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals have survived.
Both teams’ American League Division Series were pushed to fifth and deciding games. At times in each series, the Blue Jays and Royals both looked left for dead before their incredible resurrections shoved them into this American League Championship Series, ripe with the league’s two best regular-season records.
The Blue Jays were the team that surged in the second half, spurred by key trades for David Price, Troy Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins along with a boiling-hot offense and a revived R.A. Dickey. They eventually also got the services of Marcus Stroman, who ended up with a couple of quality starts in the ALDS against the Texas Rangers.
The Royals were the club that almost went wire-to-wire and ended with the best record in the Junior Circuit. They did it with the same core of budding stars they won the pennant with last season, helped this time around by Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto, trade-deadline acquisitions who, at times, were significant contributors to their run to and through the ALDS against the Houston Astros.
Now, with improbable series wins behind them, the Blue Jays and Royals face off in the ALCS with Game 1 kicking it off Friday in Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET.