Blue Jays drop Game 2 of ALDS to Rangers in 14th inning

The Texas Rangers rallied for two runs with two outs in the 14th inning to defeat the Blue Jays 6-4 in a marathon thriller Friday that left Toronto on the brink of elimination in their American League Division Series.

Jays nemesis Rougned Odor beat out an outfield single off LaTroy Hawkins, the Jays' seventh pitcher, to start the two-out rally. Chris Gimenez then singled with Odor escaping a tag at second on the play after a video review.

"You wonder if 50,000 could be wrong," Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar said. "I'm pretty sure I saw some daylight there."

Hanser Alberto's single up the middle scored Odor, with Gimenez moving to third and Alberto to second. Delino DeShields then beat out an infield single off Liam Hendriks to drive in Gimenez.

Russ Ohlendorf took care of the Jays in the bottom of the 14th, hitting Russell Martin with a pitch with two outs before striking out Kevin Pillar.

The best-of-five series now switches to Arlington on Sunday, with the Jays deep in a hole having lost the opener 5-3 Thursday.

"This is an uphill battle but it's been done before," Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin said.

"Our backs are against the wall," Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. "It's not where you want to be but that's what we're faced with."

Friday's game ranks as Toronto's longest post-season game by innings. The Jays have gone to 11 innings on three previous occasions.

The bench emptied with one out in the 13th after Josh Donaldson hit a blast just foul to left-field with one out. Keone Kela, the fifth Rangers pitcher, took umbrage at Donaldson's salty post-pitch comments and had to be held back. Nothing came of the incident, however.

Donaldson, the Jays MVP candidate, had homered in the first inning just hours after going through a concussion check necessitated by a collision in Thursday's game.

Both bullpens refused to blink as the innings kept coming.

Jays closer Roberto Osuna pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and 10th. Rangers left-hander Jake Diekman, hitting 99 m.p.h. at times, matched him both innings.

The game was a duel between Marcus Stroman and Rangers ace Cole Hamels for seven innings.

Stroman left with a 4-3 lead after yielding a leadoff single to DeShields in the eighth. But reliever Brett Cecil could not hold down the fort.

After a sacrifice bunt moved DeShields to second, Cecil struck out Prince Fielder. Pinch-hitter Mike Napoli singled to bring DeShields home and tie the game 4-4. Napoli was picked off to end the threat, with Cecil leaving the field gingerly. Left calf tightness was the early prognosis.

The wild start saw the two team tied 3-3 after two innings that featured six runs, six hits and two errors.

The Jays trailed 2-0 after an eventful first inning that saw Stroman need 23 pitches to get his first out and Colabello to throw him a lifeline with a remarkable fielding display.

After Donaldson's first post-season homer cut the lead to 2-1, Odor walked to open the second inning, beat a tag going to third on a groundout and then beat another tag on Alberto's sacrifice fly.

Odor homered and scored three runs in Thursday's 5-3 Rangers win.

An error by Alberto, Beltre's replacement, put Tulowitzki on with no outs. Colabello's ground-rule double sent him to third before Martin, atoning for his error, singled deep to right field to drive in a run. Colabello scored to tied it at 3-3 when Pillar grounded into a double play.

Toronto went ahead for the first time in the series in the fifth after Pillar doubled, moved to third on Goins' bunt and scored on Revere's single. Bautista had the crowd on its feet with a moonshot near the upper deck that was just foul.

The Roger Centre roof was closed for the second day in a row. It was 15 degrees Celsius outside at game time, with a 20 per cent change of precipitation. It was 20 degrees inside the dome.

It was a 12:45 p.m. local start, coming some 18 hours after the end of Game 1.