Kansas City Royals: Revisiting the 2015 ALCS Game 5

The pitchers continued to impress in the later innings of Game 5, but as the game progress, the Royals would have to hope they could keep up with Toronto.

In line with the first few innings of Game 5, the fourth and fifth innings continued to be a pitching clinic from both sides. Showing their pitching power and abilities, both started to shut down the bats of their opponents.

In the top of the fourth, Estrada gave up a single for Escobar. He quickly turned the inning around, though, pitching Zobrist into a double play, and Cain into a popfly. To finish out the fourth, Volquez retired all there Blue Jays he faced for a quick inning.

In the fifth, the starters switched places. This time, Estrada sat the three Royals he faced with a groundout and two fly balls. Volquez recorded two quick outs, then gave up a single to Kevin Pillar. To answer back, he recorded the next out, closing out the fifth.

To begin the sixth, Estrada again sat three Royals batters in order, adding to the impressive game he was putting together. In the bottom of the sixth, Volquez began to struggle. He started the inning with a walk to Ben Revere, followed up with a hit by pitch on Josh Donaldson and another walk to Jose Bautista, loading the bases. Encarnacion stepped to the plate, eventually taking a walk, allowing Revere in for the score.

The Royals answered by replacing Volquez with Kelvin Herrera. Herrera started off strong with a strikeout. He was unable to stop the momentum, though, giving up a double to Troy Tulowitzki, allowing Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion to score. Herrera pulled it together and recorded the next two outs on two strikeouts, closing the sixth with Toronto on top, 5-0.