Royals coast to Game 4 win to put Blue Jays on brink

Ben Zobrist and Alex Rios homered as Kansas City roughed up Toronto starter R.A. Dickey early and the bullpen late en route to a lopsided 14-2 victory that pushed the Blue Jays to the playoff precipice Tuesday.

The Royals lead the best-of-seven American League Championship Series 3-1, meaning Toronto now faces its fourth must-win game of the post-season.

It's a do-or-die game for us, but they do it all year. These guys will let this one go, and they'll show up to play tomorrow.- Blue Jays manager John Gibbons on his team's 3-1 series deficit

Game 5 goes Wednesday at the Rogers Centre (4:07 p.m. ET) with Toronto's Marco Estrada facing Edinson Volquez in a rematch of Game 1 at Kauffman Stadium.

"It's a do-or-die game for us, but they do it all year," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "These guys will let this one go, and they'll show up to play tomorrow."

Things got so bad that the Jays sent in infielder Cliff Pennington to pitch with two outs and two one in the ninth. He got an ovation that grew louder with a 91-mile-per-hour first strike.

He then gave up two runs on back-to-back singles in an unexpected seven-pitch outing before Russell Martin saved him with a foul catch at the Jays dugout.

Kansas City led 5-0 with just four outs to silence the Rogers Centre crowd of 49,501. Dickey lasted one out longer, having dispatched just five of the 12 batters he faced in the shortest start in Jays' playoff history.

The first four Royals got on base and ultimately scored. The four runs in the top of the first were an ALCS record.

Command issues

"It looked like there was a lot of movement on it, at least from where I was standing, but he really had trouble commanding it," Gibbons said of Dickey's knuckleball.

Kansas City added four insurance runs in the seventh, sending eight to the plate. There were three more runs in the eighth as Gibbons, electing not to use his top relievers in a lost cause, watched another eight Royals hit.

The Jays, who rallied from an 0-2 hole to down Texas in the best-of-five ALDS, are trying to become just the third team to overcome multiple 0-2 deficits in a single post-season, according to Elias Sports. The Dodgers (1981) and Royals (1985 when they trailed the Blue Jays in the ALCS) both did it.

Estrada kept the Jays alive with a win in Game 3 of the ALDS in Texas.

The Royals pitchers have shut down the free-swinging Toronto bats in three of four games. The Jays, who led the majors with 891 runs in the regular season, have scored zero, three, 11 and two against Kansas City.

On the plus side, Toronto got 4 1/3 innings of one-hit shutout relief from Liam Hendriks after Dickey flamed out.

But LaTroy Hawkins and Ryan Tepera were treated like batting practice in the seventh and eighth.

In contrast, Royals relievers Luke Hochevar, Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Franklin Morales blanked the Jays.

While Dickey struggled, Chris Young got the job done for the Royals in his first post-season start since 2006 with the San Diego Padres, working 4 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on three hits. The six-foot-10 255-pounder was working on 12 days of rest, having worked four innings out of the bullpen in Game 1 of the ALDS.