The Kansas City Royals routed the Toronto Blue Jays 14-2 in Game 4 of the ALCS on Tuesday night, putting themselves one more win from their second straight World Series. Let's take a look at seven things to know about the Royals and Jays:
1. The Blue Jays have about a 15 percent chance to overcome the Royals.
The team up 3-1 in a best-of-7 postseason series has won 84.8 percent of the time (67 out of 79). One of the 12 teams to come back after trailing was the Royals, in the 1985 ALCS, against the Jays -- if you're into turnabout being fair play 30 years later.
2. The Royals are batting .331 as a team, which is the highest average for a team in ALCS history through four games.
Kansas City's 14 runs scored in a game is a team record for the postseason, and the Royals have scored 31 games in the first four games. If you're looking for a series MVP and the Royals close the series out soon, Alcides Escobar has 15 hits, nine runs scored, five RBI and an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.446 in four games -- after posting a .614 OPS in the regular season. Lorenzo Cain has hit in 13 straight playoff games going back to 2014.
Check out the difference between this Royals offense and the one during the regular season:
The Royals have scored 5+ runs in 6 postseason games in a row. They didn't score 5+ runs in more than 4 straight games during the season.
— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) October 20, 2015
3. The Royals put the Blue Jays in a tough spot with a four-run first inning against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey:
Ben Zobrist's two-run homer put the Royals ahead, but they didn't stop there. They added two more runs on a passed ball and a good old sacrifice fly by Mike Moustakas,
4. The Royals hit four sacrifice flies -- which hasn't been done in at least 61 years, and possibly ever.
It's a major-league record for a postseason game going back to 1954, when they started keeping track of that stat. Who was responsible? Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Escobar -- twice.
5. Chris Young became the third Ivy Leaguer to start a playoff game.
Chris Young joins Jim Beattie & Ron Darling as only Ivy League pitchers to start an #LCS game. #OwnOctober pic.twitter.com/gN90BE9Iip
— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) October 20, 2015
Young gave the Royals everything they wanted, allowing two runs and three hits over 4 2/3 innings. Once the Blue Jays turned over the lineup and batters started to see Young for a third time through, the Royals went to the bullpen.
6. The Blue Jays used a backup shortstop to pitch.
With the Jays down 10 runs in the ninth inning, infielder Cliff Pennington came in from the bullpen to face three batters. Other than Babe Ruth and Rick Ankiel, who really had two different careers as batters and pitchers, Pennington was the first true position player in history to be used in a postseason game. He allowed two hits, plus two inherited runners to score, but he hit 91 mph on the radar gun and showed lively movement for someone who hadn't pitched since he was in college 10 years ago.
7. LaTroy Hawkins might have thrown his last pitch in the majors.
Hawkins, who said he was going to retire at the end of the season, posted a 2.76 ERA in 18 appearances for the Jays after coming over from the Rockies. But he has struggled in the playoffs, facing 14 batters without striking out one. He has allowed seven runs and seven hits in the postseason, making for a 45.00 ERA.
