The Cleveland Indians and the Toronto Blue Jays will battle it out in Game 5 of the ALCS on Wednesday, and the Indians have yet another opportunity to out this series to bed today. The Blue Jays though will have taken heart from their win in Game 4, and although that's just a tiny step, it was the absolutely necessary first stop if they are to perform the most of dramatic of turnarounds in this series.
Today's big MLB Playoffs 2016 game between the Cleveland Indians and the Toronto Blue Jays has a scheduled start time of 4.08 p.m. ET and takes place again from Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario. The game can be watched on TV not he TBS and TSN networks or online through live stream via the link below.
The Blue Jays took the first step of what will need to be a four game win streak on Tuesday to move to 1-3 in this series. However, they face another win or go home game today, and there will be no room for mistakes as they look to pull up to the half way point of what would be an extraordinary comeback.
The starting pitcher for the Indians today will be Ryan Merritt, who allowed one run on three hits through five innings in the solitary start of his career so far, which was a 7-2 win over the Kansas City Royals in September. The rookie is a left hander and has recorded an impressive 1.64 ERA across his 11 career innings so far, with all of those coming in 2016.
Meanwhile the Blue Jays will be sending Marco Estrada to the mound as their starting pitcher for this must win game. Estrada completed the game in Game 1 of this ALCS but was unable to stop Toronto from suffering the loss. In that game he allowed two runs and six hits in eight innings.
It will be interesting to see how rookie Merritt deals with the pressure today. He has said ahead of the game: "I'll just relax and treat it as any other game. I know I can get outs, so I'm just going to pitch to my strengths."
However, Merritt will be a bit of an unknown for the Blue Jays to deal with. Toronto manager John Gibbons has said, "What do I know about him? He's left-handed. That's all I know right now."
About today's game he added: "We're still alive, no doubt. Even through the struggles of the last few games where they outplayed us and shut us down, I mean, it was the same guys, just weren't getting the results. ... We've got another game. So we'll see what the heck happens."
Today's big MLB Playoffs 2016 ALCS Game 5 between the Cleveland Indians and the Toronto Blue Jays has a scheduled start time of 4.08 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the TBS and TSN networks or online through live stream by clicking here.
