Rangers recap: 7th-inning collapse ends Texas’ season

The wildest seventh inning in postseason history, which lasted 53 minutes, ended with the Toronto Blue Jays scoring four runs thanks in large part to three consecutive errors by Texas Rangers infielders to start the inning. Jose Bautista’s three-run homer against reliever Sam Dyson put the finishing touches on the Rangers’ collapse and gave the Blue Jays a 6-3 win in Game 5 of the American League Division Series Wednesday afternoon at the Rogers Centre.

Pitching: Toronto got on the board with a run in the third against Cole Hamels. Ben Revere reached on an infield single and scored on Jose Bautista’s two-out double to the left-field corner. After intentionally walking Edwin Encarnacion, Hamels induced an inning-ending groundout by Chris Colabello on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. Hamels had thrown 59 pitches, including 29 in the third, through three innings. Hamels retired the side in the fourth and fifth innings on 10 pitches each, including a swinging strikeout of Kevin Pillar to end the fourth. In the fifth, Adrian Beltre charged Ben Revere’s bunt and made the barehanded pickup and throw for the second out. Hamels had retired eight straight before Encarnacion homered to left to tie it at 2-2 in the sixth. Hamels struck out Colabello and Tulowitzki to end the inning.

The Blue Jays rallied for four runs in the seventh as the inning started with three consecutive errors, including two by Elvis Andrus to load the bases. Moreland threw home to get the first out and preserve Texas’ 3-2 lead. Sam Dyson replaced Hamels with the bases loaded to face, who blooped a single over Odor at second to tie it at 3-3. Bautista’s three-run homer to left put the Jays ahead for the first time 6-3.

Hitting: Texas manufactured a run in the first after Delino DeShields led off with a double to left and later scored on Prince Fielder’s grounder to first. DeShields just beat the throw home with his head-first slide. In the third, Shin-Soo Choo homered to make it 2-0. Stroman had his first 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, which included a diving catch on a shallow fly by Kevin Pillar to retire Josh Hamilton for the first out. In the seventh, Rougned Odor led off with a single and moved to second on Chris Gimenez’s sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Choo was at the plate when Toronto catcher Russell Martin’s throw back to Aaron Sanchez hit Choo’s bat and bounced towards the Blue Jays’ dugout. An alert Odor at third saw this and ran home to score the go-ahead run. At first, home plate umpire Dale Scott called it a dead ball, but after conferring with his crew the run counted. During this long process, angry Blue Jays fans threw debris on the field and play was halted multiple times to clean up. The seventh inning lasted 53 minutes.

Notable: Choo’s homer was his second in the postseason. He homered for the Reds in his first-career postseason game, the 20213 National League Wild-card game.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 6:45 PM with the headline "Rangers recap: 7th-inning collapse ends Texas’ season."