DYK: Facts and figures from ALCS Game 4

October 19th, 2016

The Blue Jays extended the American League Championship Series with a critical 5-1 victory over the Indians in Game 4 on Tuesday. Toronto scored more runs in that game than it had in the first three games of the series combined. Trailing 3-1 in the series, the Jays need a win in Wednesday's Game 5 at Rogers Centre to send the series back to Cleveland.
The Tribe will turn to rookie left-hander , who will become the second pitcher to start a postseason game after making just one regular-season start. Merritt will be matched up against , who was Toronto's Game 1 starter.
ALCS Game 5: Today at 4 p.m. ET on TBS/Sportsnet/RDS
:: ALCS: Blue Jays vs. Indians coverage ::
Now let's take a final look at some of the most interesting facts and happenings from Game 4.
• Since the best-of-seven LCS format began in 1985, the Blue Jays are just the second team in ALCS history out of seven in a 3-0 hole to win Game 4. The 2004 Red Sox, who came back to beat the Yankees in seven games, were the other team to win Game 4. The five other teams who trailed 3-0 were swept.
• Toronto catcher went 0-for-3 with a walk and remains with 35 career postseason hits. He is one shy of Hall of Fame left fielder Tip O'Neill for the most career postseason hits by a Canadian-born hitter.
• Coming into the game, the Blue Jays had trailed the Indians for 18 innings and were tied for nine innings. Toronto took its first lead of the series in the third inning on 's home run. This was the first time Cleveland trailed in a postseason game since the first inning of Game 1 of the AL Division Series against Boston, and the Tribe only trailed for one inning all series.
• Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez dominated the Indians in part because of his excellent fastball velocity. During the regular season, Sanchez averaged 94.7 mph on his fastball, but he averaged 95.1 mph on his fastball on Tuesday. Cleveland has struggled against pitchers with above-average velocity (.376 SLG, ranked 29th in baseball) compared to pitchers with below-average velocity (.510 SLG, ranked 15th) this season, and Sanchez is Toronto's lone starter with above-average velocity.

• The Blue Jays will need to win four straight to win the ALCS and have had eight winning streaks of four or more games this season. However, the Indians were the only team in baseball to not lose four in a row.
• Since Game 2 of the 1993 ALCS, the Blue Jays are 0-13 in postseason games in which they score fewer than five runs. Toronto scored five runs on Tuesday and extended its win streak to 21 games in games when scoring five or more runs.

• During the regular season, had only walked back-to-back hitters twice and never walked back-to-back hitters to start an inning until Game 4. Kluber did just that in the fourth inning, and leadoff hitter scored on a single two batters after the second walk.

• Sanchez became the second Blue Jays pitcher to go at least six innings and give up fewer than two hits in a postseason start, joining Dave Stieb (Game 4 of the 1985 ALCS against the Royals).

• Indians reliever committed a throwing error in the seventh inning, which broke an errorless streak dating to Sept. 25. That goes back 12 games and 109 innings.