2015 American League Division Series
Teams
Team (Wins) Manager Season Kansas City Royals (3) Ned Yost 95–67, .586, GA: 12 Houston Astros (2) A. J. Hinch 86–76, .531, GB: 2
Dates	October 8–14
Television	United States: FS1 (Games 1–2, 4–5) MLB Network (Game 3) Canada: Sportsnet (simulcast of FS1 games)
TV announcers	Matt Vasgersian,John Smoltz,A. J. Pierzynski (Games 1–2, 4–5), andJ. P. Morosi
Radio	ESPN
Radio announcers	Dave O' Brien andJohn Kruk
Umpires	Gerry Davis (crew chief),Lance Barksdale,Mike Everitt,Ángel Hernández,Ron Kulpa,Todd Tichenor
Teams
Team (Wins) Manager Season Toronto Blue Jays (3) John Gibbons 93–69, .574, GA: 6 Texas Rangers (2) Jeff Banister 88–74, .543, GA: 2
Dates	October 8–14
Television	United States: FS1 (Games 1, 3–5) MLB Network (Game 2) Canada: Sportsnet
TV announcers	Kenny Albert,Harold Reynolds,Tom Verducci, andKen Rosenthal (FS1) Bob Costas,Jim Kaat, and Ken Rosenthal (MLBN)
Radio	ESPN
Radio announcers	Chris Berman (Games 1–2) Dave Flemming (Games 3–4) Dan Shulman (Game 5) Rick Sutcliffe
Umpires	Dale Scott (crew chief),Dan Bellino,Vic Carapazza,James Hoye,Marvin Hudson,Alfonso Márquez
ALWC	Houston Astros defeatedNew York Yankees, 3–0
← 2014 ALDS 2016 →

The2015 American League Division Series were two best-of-five-game series inMajor League Baseball’s (MLB)2015 postseason to determine the participating teams in the2015 American League Championship Series. The three divisional winners (seeded 1-3) and a fourth team—the winner ofa one-game Wild Card playoff— played in two series.Fox Sports 1 carried the majority of games in the United States, whileSportsnet primarily simulcast Fox Sports 1's coverage in Canada.^[1]MLB Network had exclusive coverage of Game 3 of theKansas City Royals–Houston Astros series in both the United States and Canada, and Game 2 of theToronto Blue Jays–Texas Rangers series in the U.S. only (Sportsnet, co-owned with the Blue Jays byRogers Communications, simulcast MLB Network's coverage for the latter).^[2] The ALDS began on October 8 and ran until October 14.^[3] TheToronto Blue Jays andKansas City Royals had home field advantage in this round of the playoffs. With theNew York Yankees being eliminated by the Astros in the AL Wild Card Game, this is the first time in ALDS history that all four ALDS teams were expansion teams.

These matchups were:

• (1)Kansas City Royals (Central Division champion) vs (5)Houston Astros (Wild Card winner): Royals win series 3–2.
• (2)Toronto Blue Jays (East Division champion) vs (3)Texas Rangers (West Division champion): Blue Jays win series 3–2.^[4]

This was the first ALDS appearance for both the Astros and Blue Jays. Toronto's last postseason berth came in1993, the final season of the two-round playoff format. Houston, on the other hand, made its first playoff appearance as anAmerican League team; the franchise's preceding postseason berth came in2005 while a member of theNational League. The Blue Jays and the Rangers, and the Astros and the Royals, met for the first time in postseason play.

This was the second time (and first since2001) that both ALDS winners overcame a 2–1 series deficit to advance to the ALCS.

The Royals would go on to defeat the Blue Jays in the ALCS, then win the2015 World Series over the National League championNew York Mets, the Royals first World Series title since 1985.

Kansas City won the series, 3–2.

Toronto won the series, 3–2.

The Astros quickly quieted a raucous Kansas City crowd by scoring two runs in the 1st inning, both coming on RBI groundouts fromColby Rasmus andEvan Gattis respectively.Jose Altuve would add an RBI single in the next inning to give Houston a 3–0 lead.Kendrys Morales would get the Royals on the board with a home run in the bottom of the frame to make it 3–1. A 49-minute no-dome delay prompted Kansas City managerNed Yost to pull starterYordano Ventura from the game, while Houston stuck withCollin McHugh who would only surrender another shot from Morales in the 4th in six innings. The Astros bullpen would shut out Kansas City from there whileGeorge Springer and Rasmus would add shots to provide Houston with all the insurance runs they would need to steal home field advantage from the Royals in taking a 1–0 series lead.^[15]

Early on, this game looked like a mirror image of the first game with Houston taking a quick 3–0 lead in the first two innings on an RBI double fromColby Rasmus in the 1st, and then a two-run single fromGeorge Springer in the 2nd. Just like Game 1, Kansas City added a home run in the bottom of the 2nd, this time fromSalvador Pérez to make it 3-1 heading into the third inning.Rasmus continued his hot hitting in that inning with a home run to give the Astros a 4–1 lead, but in the bottom of the frame the Royals got the run back whenBen Zobrist grounded into a double play, which scoredAlex Ríos from 3rd base to make it 4–2.^[16]

The score would remain 4-2 until the bottom of the sixth, where the Royals mustered the first of their many comebacks of this postseason. With the Astros threatening to take a 2–0 series lead back to Houston, where the Royals would have to face eventual ALCy Young winnerDallas Keuchel,Lorenzo Cain got a rally started with a double.Eric Hosmer then drove him in with an RBI single. Two batters later, with the bases now loaded, the Astros brought inJosh Fields to face Perez. Fields threw four straight balls to walk in the game-tying run. Fields did recover and struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam, but now the game was tied at four.^[17]

In the bottom of the 7th,Will Harris relieved Fields, but surrendered an immediate triple toAlcides Escobar. Zobrist then drove in Escobar with an RBI single to give Kansas City the 5–4 lead. That was all the vaunted Royals bullpen needed asRyan Madson andWade Davis pitched scoreless 8th and 9th innings respectively to even the series.^[18]

Dallas Keuchel had assembled a perfect 15–0 record atMinute Maid Park during the regular season, and he continued his winning ways with another win in Game 3. It was initially a pitchers' duel between Keuchel andEdinson Vólquez until Keuchel surrendered his only run of the game on aLorenzo Cain home run. The Royals' lead didn't last long though, as in the bottom of the 5th, catcherJason Castro, not known for his hitting, got a hold of a 1-out, 2-strike pitch for a two-run single up the middle for the first postseason hit of his career.Carlos Gómez added an RBI single in the 6th, andChris Carter added a homer in the 7th on his way to a 3-hit night. CloserLuke Gregerson surrendered a home run toAlex Gordon in the 9th, but he closed out the Royals from there to put the Astros one win away from advancing to the 2015 ALCS.^[19]

Kansas City opened the scoring of this game with a 2-run homer fromSalvador Pérez in the top of the 2nd. However,Carlos Gómez andCarlos Correa hit home runs in the bottom of the 2nd and 3rd innings respectively to tie the game. Correa would drive in another run in the 5th with a double to give Houston a 3–2 lead. Then in the 7th, Correa hit another home run, this time driving in 2 runs, followed immediately by aColby Rasmus home run to give the Astros a lead of 6–2.^[20]

Now trailing by four runs and six outs away from being eliminated from the postseason, Kansas City opened the eighth with five straight singles off relieversWill Harris andTony Sipp, with RBI hits byLorenzo Cain andEric Hosmer making it 6–4 and loading the bases with no outs.Kendrys Morales followed with a hard, one-bouncer off Sipp's glove. The ball took two more hops and got past the top ofCarlos Correa's mitt, rolling into center field as two runs scored to tie it at six.Alex Gordon's RBI groundout offLuke Gregerson later in the inning put Kansas City ahead. Hosmer launched a two-run homer in the ninth andWade Davis pitched a 2-inning save to save the Royals' season.

This marked the second time in franchise history that Kansas City had rallied from a four-run deficit after seven innings to win a postseason game. The first came in 2014, when the Royals trailed theOakland Athletics 7–3 in the eighth of theirAL Wild Card Game before eventually winning in the 12th. These are the only two instances in Major League history of a team taking a must-win game after trailing by four runs after seven innings.,^[21] though theBoston Red Sox trailed by seven runs in the middle of the seventh inning while on the brink of elimination in Game 5 of the2008 American League Championship Series.

Johnny Cueto was two pitches away from potentially having a perfect game. The first was a pitch thatEvan Gattis hit down the left field line and was fielded byMike Moustakas in foul territory. Had Moustakas had a clean throw to first base, Kansas City would have been out of the inning, but Moustakas' throw was off the mark, bringing first basemanEric Hosmer off the bag, and Hosmer couldn't hang onto the ball to tag out Gattis, thus giving Gattis a base hit. On the next pitch,Luis Valbuena sent the ball into the Astros bullpen for a two-run home run. That would be the last baserunner Cueto would allow, as he retired the last nineteen Astros batters he faced. Cueto became the first pitcher to retire the last nineteen batters he faced in a postseason game sinceRoy Halladay'sno-hitter in 2010 where he retired 21 in a row.^[22]

In the 4th,Lorenzo Cain reached base on a single. Then Hosmer hit a single to center field with Cain running on the pitch. Center fielderCarlos Gómez slipped onto his backside when he fielded the ball, which allowed Cain to go all the way home to make it a 2–1 game. This would be the first of two times during the postseason that Cain would score from 1st base on a single from Hosmer.

In the 5th,Salvador Pérez reached base when he was hit by aCollin McHugh pitch. The next batter,Alex Gordon hit a ball to deep right-center field, which bounced into the stands for a ground rule double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. At this point Houston brought inMike Fiers to replace McHugh on the mound to faceAlex Ríos. On a 1-1 pitch, Rios hit the ball down the left-field line that got by the third baseman for a double to score both runners and give Kansas City a 3–2 lead.Alcides Escobar then bunted Rios to third for the first out of the inning.Ben Zobrist then hit a ball to right-center field, which was enough to get Rios home with a sacrifice fly to give the Royals a 4–2 lead.

Dallas Keuchel was brought in for a relief appearance on just two days of rest in the 8th inning and quickly surrendered a double to Escobar down the right-field line. After Zobrist lined out toJose Altuve at second base, Keuchel intentionally walked Cain to put runners on first and second base. Hosmer popped out for the second out to bring upKendrys Morales. Keuchel worked a 1-2 count when he just missed outside to make it a 2-2 count. On the next pitch, Morales lined the ball to the left-center field bleachers for a three-run home run to just about put the game away.Wade Davis pitched a perfect ninth withPaulo Orlando making the final out with a catch against the wall to send the Royals to back-to-back ALCS appearances for the first time since the 1984 and 1985 teams did so.^[23]

2015 ALDS (3–2):Kansas City Royals beatHouston Astros

David Price took the mound in search of his first playoff win as a starter, and coming into the game he was 0–3 lifetime against theTexas Rangers in the postseason. Opposing him wasYovani Gallardo, who provided the Rangers with their only two victories against Toronto in the regular season, and had been one of the few starters in the majors who had been able to shut down the Blue Jays' bats. In the top of the third inning, Price hit leadoff hitterRougned Odor with a pitch. One out later,Delino DeShields hit a single up the middle scoring Odor for the first run of the game. A few batters later,Adrián Beltré gave Texas a 2–0 lead with an RBI single. The Blue Jays cut the lead in half in the fourth thanks to an infield single byEdwin Encarnación scoringBen Revere. After Price once again hit Odor in the top of the fifth inning,Robinson Chirinos hit a fly ball home run to give the Rangers a 4–1 lead. The Blue Jays would claw back to within a run before Odor hit a line drive home run into the visitor's bullpen in right field, giving the Rangers breathing room and the eventual 5–3 win. The injury bug hit both clubs, as Beltre was forced to leave due to a nagging back injury and was replaced byHanser Alberto.Josh Donaldson left in the fifth inning with a possible concussion, after being hit by the knee of Odor after a slide during an attempted double play, andJosé Bautista left in the top of the ninth due to a hamstring cramp.

Delino DeShields doubled to lead off the game off ofMarcus Stroman, then scored onShin-Soo Choo's single. After aPrince Fielder single moved Choo to third, catcherRussell Martin's error onMitch Moreland's fielder's choice made it 2–0 Rangers. The Blue Jays cut it to 2–1 onJosh Donaldson's one-out home run in the bottom of the inning off ofCole Hamels. In the top of the second,Rougned Odor drew a leadoff walk, moved to third on a groundout and scored onHanser Alberto's sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the inning, with runners on second and third on an error and double, Martin's single andKevin Pillar's double scored a run each, tying the game. In the fifth, Pillar hit a leadoff double, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, and scored onBen Revere's single to give the Blue Jays the lead. DeShields singled to lead off the top of the eighth.Brett Cecil relieved Stroman and allowed a sacrifice bunt, then a strikeout beforeMike Napoli's pinch-hit RBI single tied the game, which went into extra innings. In the top of the 14th,LaTroy Hawkins allowed three straight two-out singles, the last of which to Alberto scoring a run.Liam Hendriks relieved Hawkins and allowed an RBI single to DeShields.Ross Ohlendorf pitched a scoreless bottom of the inning for the save as the Rangers took a 2–0 series lead heading to Arlington. The contest was the fourth longest (in terms of innings played) in Division Series history, and the second-longest in ALDS history.^[24]

In a do-or-die Game 3, the Blue Jays sentMarco Estrada to the hill. Opposing him wasMartín Pérez, making his first career start and appearance against the Blue Jays. Estrada was sharp throughout his start, only running into trouble late. Perez lost control of the strike zone in the fourth inning after intentionally walkingEdwin Encarnación, and he eventually gave up a walk toTroy Tulowitzki making it 2–0 Jays before getting a double play ball off the bat ofDioner Navarro to end the inning. In the sixth inning, Perez got into trouble again after two straight singles byJosh Donaldson andJosé Bautista, forcing the Rangers to go toChi Chi Gonzalez to try to end the threat. After walkingEdwin Encarnación and loading the bases with nobody out, the Blue Jays bad luck struck again asChris Colabello hit a ball right to first basemanMitch Moreland, who completed a 3-2-3 double play to put the Blue Jays' rally in jeopardy. The next batter in the inning, Tulowitzki, worked Gonzalez to a full count and then on the sixth pitch drilled a three-run home run that broke the game open. The Rangers only threatened in the seventh inning, and Estrada was pulled after back-to-back hits byElvis Andrus andJosh Hamilton with one out. The Blue Jays went toAaron Loup for a favorable lefty-lefty matchup which resulted in an RBI groundout byRougned Odor. The Blue Jays then went toMark Lowe to faceRobinson Chirinos who worked him to a full count and then on the eighth pitch of the at-bat caught Chirinos looking to end the inning,Roberto Osuna came on and pitched a perfect ninth as Toronto forced Game 4.

After the Blue Jays forced Game 4, the Rangers turned toDerek Holland to end the series. Opposing him was knuckleballerR. A. Dickey, making his first postseason start. The Blue Jays jumped on Holland for three runs in the first inning on a single byBen Revere and home runs byJosh Donaldson andChris Colabello. AKevin Pillar home run in the second inning made it 4−0 Toronto. A walk by Donaldson and a double byJosé Bautista chased Holland and put runners on second and third with no one out.Colby Lewis came on in relief of Holland and allowed a fielder's choice ground out fromEdwin Encarnación, getting Bautista out at third but allowing Donaldson to score to make it 5−0. A double by Colabello scored Encarnacion to make it 6–0. A fly ball byTroy Tulowitzki was the second out,Russell Martin walked and Pillar struck an RBI single to score Colabello and make it 7−0 after three innings. In the bottom of the third,Shin-Soo Choo scored on a wild pitch from Dickey to cut the lead to six, but that was the only run Dickey would allow in4+2⁄3 innings.David Price relieved Dickey and gotShin-Soo Choo to fly out on his first pitch to end the fifth. In the seventh, another RBI single by Pillar scored Martin and pushed the lead back to seven runs. The Rangers tried to chip away at the lead, scoring a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth off Price to cut the lead to four runs, butAaron Sanchez came on and struck outDrew Stubbs to end the threat. Osuna retired the Rangers in order in the ninth inning to force a game 5 back in Toronto.

Prior to the loser-go-home deciding Game 5 between the Blue Jays and Rangers, thousands of fans signed a petition to play the game with the Rogers Centre's retractable roof open.^[25][26] The dome was kept closed due to fears that operating the roof during cold temperatures would cause it to be stuck in the open position.^[27]

An RBI single byPrince Fielder in the first and a homer byShin-Soo Choo in the third gave the Rangers an early lead overMarcus Stroman and the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays fought back to tie it with an RBI double byJosé Bautista in the third and a home run byEdwin Encarnación in the sixth.

The 53-minute seventh inning was laden with controversy. In the top of the inning, withRougned Odor on third and two outs,Russell Martin was in the process of throwing the ball back to the mound afterAaron Sanchez delivered a pitch, but the ball hit Choo's bat and bounced toward third base. Observing this, Odor ran home to score the go-ahead run, though the play was initially ruled a dead ball by home plate umpireDale Scott and the run was voided. Rangers managerJeff Banister came out to argue and after a discussion, the umpires awarded the run to Texas, citing rule 6.03a – that Choo was not intentionally interfering with the throw back to the pitcher. Since Choo was in the batter's box, interference could not be called, and the play was ruled a live ball. The game was delayed 18 minutes as angry home fans tossed beer cans and garbage onto the field. During this time, a video review from the umpires was on confirming with a rules check, and Blue Jays managerJohn Gibbons announced he was playing the game under protest.

The turning point in the game came during the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Rangers made three consecutive errors. A fielding error byElvis Andrus, a throwing error by first basemanMitch Moreland (that was thrown at Andrus), and a missed catch error, also by Andrus, loaded the bases with nobody out.Ben Revere proceeded to hit into afielder's choice to first, with Moreland throwing to home, where pinch runnerDalton Pompey slid into catcherChris Gimenez to prevent the chance of a double play; after a Texas review, the play stood, and no interference was called. After Rangers sinkerballerSam Dyson relievedCole Hamels,Josh Donaldson hit a ball just over the glove of Rougned Odor. Odor recovered and threw the ball to second base for a force out but the tying run scored and left runners on first and third. The next batter, José Bautista, hit a three-run home run off Dyson to give the Blue Jays a 6–3 lead. He wouldflip his bat before running the bases, an action widely applauded by Blue Jays fans and several media outlets but considered unsportsmanlike by some observers.^[28] The benches would clear afterward, when Edwin Encarnación threw up his hands to the fans in an attempt to discourage any more garbage being thrown on the field but Dyson interpreted that as Encarnación showboating. At the end of the inning, Dyson andTroy Tulowitzki got into an argument after Dyson touched Tulowitzki on the buttocks when Dyson was walking back to his dugout, and the benches cleared once again. There were no ejections or punches thrown in either bench-clearing incident.

Roberto Osuna would record a five-out save, and at the age of 20, became the youngest pitcher in American League history to record a save in the postseason, as well as the second-youngest pitcher in Major League history to do so.^[29]

The game marked the third time in the history of the Division Series in which a team lost the first two games at home, but came back to win the series.^[30] This also marked the first time that a Toronto-based team in theBig Four won a postseason round since theMaple Leafs' series victory in the first round of the2004 Stanley Cup playoffs.

This game also started a series of bad blood between Toronto and Texas. The next season, in a regular season game in Arlington, Bautista was hit by pitch, then Odor and Bautista got into a fight out at second base after the latter slid into the former's underside to prevent a double play. Odor punched Bautista in the face and was ejected, while Bautista was also ejected for fighting. Several other players were ejected, and several more were suspended with Odor for eight games (later reduced to seven) and Bautista for one. The two teams faced each other in the ALDS again in2016, and the Blue Jays won in a 3-game sweep; in Game 1 Bautista hit a three-run home run and then emphatically slammed down the bat in celebration.

2015 ALDS (3–2):Toronto Blue Jays beatTexas Rangers

External videos
2015 ALDS Game 5 - Rangers vs. Blue Jays onYouTube

• "2015 Postseason Schedule".MLB.com. Archived fromthe original on September 29, 2015.

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