By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Leaving Globe Life Park manager John Gibbons could have asked the convoy of buses to head north across the parking lot to AT & T Stadium.

And 1-by-1 players would take the express elevator to the top. Then, out they would go where travelling secretary Mike Shaw had arranged for a high wire to be rigged across the hole in the roof -- so the good Lord can look down on Sunday afternoon’s and watch America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys. Then, they’d make like The Flying Wallendas and walk across, save for Joaquin Benoit who is injured.

After that and reaching the tarmac at DFW, Gibbons would tell the busie to see if he could race across active runway 18R/36L before the next 757 landed.

If you think a high-wire act atop Jerry Jones’ space ship-like stadium and playing chicken with the latest American Airlines flight would be dangerous, nerve-wracking or downright silly ... well you didn’t see how the Jays spent their Friday afternoon. 

Keifer Sutherland is looking at the screenplay with its working title: Escape From Arlington. 

The Jays won 5-3 to go up 2-0 in the best-of-five American League Division Series, thanks to four homers from the usual subjects (Troy Tulowitzki and Edwin Encarnacion) and the unusual (Kevin Pillar and Ezequiel Carrera) but prison escapes go smoother than this. Before you start the AL Championship Series parade remember the Rangers went up 2-0, lost two at home and then lost Game 5 at the Rogers Centre.

Let’s see, the Jays got a five-and-fly 84-pitch effort from JA Happ, who stranded two Ranger runners in the first, two Ranger runners in the second, two Ranger runners in the third and two Ranger runners in the fourth. 

That left 12 remaining outs for what is known as what’s left of the Toronto bullpen. No problem if everyone is healthy and firing strike threes at the knee. But it is a patchwork quilt down there: no Joaquin Benoit, Jason Grilli running on fumes, Joe Biagini pitching in his seventh month when last season at double-A Richmond his ended the first week of September, Brett Cecil struggling, Francisco Liriano, a starter with three relief appearances (two good, one bad) and then there is closer Roberto Osuna, who blew three of his previous four save opportunities and left the wild card game with a sore shoulder.

Biagini recorded five outs leaving with a man on first in the seventh and two out. 

Cecil walked Odor on four pitches.

Grilli popped up Jonathan Lucroy to end the seventh.

Liriano allowed a double off the glove of first baseman Edwin Encarnacion, which appeared to be foul, walked a man one out later and then took a liner from Carlos Gomez off the back of the neck.

On came Osuna, asked to get five outs. The first out a ground ball produced a run and with Gomez on third the tying run was at the place. Osuna fanned Carlos Beltran. 

And in the ninth a lead-off double by Beltre on what looked like a catchable ball. Wearing spikes with “No Panic” on them, Osuna whiffed Rougned Odor, popped up Lucroy and retired Mitch Moreland on a fly ball to centre finishing his 31-pitch outing.

There wasn’t any panic in the Jays dug out. No, none at all. Gibbons had both Aaron Loup and Ryan Tepera warming in the bottom of the ninth with the tying run at the plate.

So, that’s six innings he’s thrown in the past eight days -- two games in Boston, the wild card win he left due to a sore shoulder and Game 2 -- throwing a combined total of 85 pitches. He ought to be able to comb his hair about Monday. Or as injured Kelly Gruber answered when Al Ryan of The Toronto Star asked when he could play again: “when I came wipe my butt with my right hand.”

The Jays pitched “tough” as pitching coach Pete Walker would say, or pitched fortunate as Texicans would say. Toronto arms have limited the Rangers to 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position. The only team who had worse numbers were the 2005 Atlanta Braves, 1-for-18 against the Houston Astros.

The Jays were also outhit 13-6, but the H column is a little like Shots on Goal stat in hockey. It’s is an indicator but does not tell the whole story. The Rangers had 15 total bases on their 13 hits, while the Jays had 18 on their six safeties. 

THE GOOD: 3B Josh Donaldson saw Ian Desmond start, stop and then break for home on an Adrian Beltre grounder in the seventh with none out. Donaldson threw home high, but C Russell Martin made the tag and Desmond was called out by plate ump Lance Barksdale. The call stood after the replay. Down by four, you have to score so easily you take the umpire out of it -- that is ... if you intend to score, score  standing. Had Desmond broke right away, Donaldson would have thrown to first ... RF Jose Bautista made a sliding play in the second off Jonathan Lucroy and another running catch on Elvis Andrus in the fourth ... Four homers give the Jays a 6-0 lead in homers two games to date. Pillar, Carrera and Encarnacion hit solo homers in a five-batter, 16-pitch span from Darvish in the fifth ... Tulowitzki’s two-run homer came after Bautista, 1-for-20 with nine whiffs against Darvish, worked a walk. 

  
THE BAD: LF Melvin Upton didn’t chase down Beltre’s drive which hit three feet up the board and then had the ball go through his legs on the carom ... 3B Donaldson, RF Bautista, C Martin combined to go hitless in 10 at-bats.

TRAINER’S ROOM: Liriano was taken to the hospital on a stretcher for precautionary X-rays and a checkup. He was cleared to fly back with the team ... 2B Devon Travis (right knee irritation) was a late scratch, which put Darwin Barney at second., 

EMERSON: So on Twitter there was a knock-knock joke making the rounds with the words written over Jose Bautista and Rougned Odor. 

Bautista: “Knock knock.”

Odor: "Who’s there?”

Bautista: “Owen.”

Odor: “Owen who?”

Bautista: “Owen Two.”   

NUMBERS: From Game 2 of the AL DS

0 -- At-bats with runner in scoring position for the Jays for the first time since Game 4 of the 1963 World Series as Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers edged the New York Yankees and Whitey Ford 2-1. Ford allowed two hits: a two-run homer to Frank Howard and a single to the same man, meaning the Dodgers didn’t have an at-bat with a man in scoring position.

5 _ Straight wins by the Jays over Texas in post-season play.

14 -- All-time home dates for the Rangers in the ALDS, the 2012 Wild Card game and the 2013 ti breaker and the Rangers have one win.

24 -- Wins for the Jays in 32 starts by Happ this season.

102 -- Career starts by Yu Darvish and Game 2 was the first time he had allowed four homers, he also had four strikeouts.

102 MPH _ The speed of the ball off Gomez’s bat which hit Liriano and caromed into right-center.

317 _ Plate appearances (79 games) since Pillar homered on June 16. 

UP IN THE BOOTH: The TBS crew did not have its best game and as the score narrowed, complaints filled the Twitter verse. Yet, Rogers Communications has the Canadian rights it chose not to spend the dough, so viewers quarrel should be with Rogers, not TBS. Brian Anderson, a Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster, doesn’t feed off Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, a Boston Red Sox broadcaster, or Joe Simpson, an Atlanta Braves broadcaster or ask enough questions ... Eck remains a beaut “there was some hesitation cheese,” as Yu Darvish paused and then threw a heavy fastball ... Anderson explained how RP Matt Bush was the first over-all pick in 2004 and added “he was selected ahead of Justin Verlander.” Said Simpson: “he was taken ahead of everyone.” ... Anderson’s brother Mike Anderson is a scout for the Rangers and pitched three games with the 1993 Cincinnati Reds. One game was memorable for the fact former Blue Jays RF Mark (Hard-Hitten’) Whiten hit four home runs and drove in 12 runs as the St. Louis Cardinals thumped the Reds 15-2 in the second game of a doubleheader. Whiten hit a first-inning grand slam to left-centre off     Cincy starter Larry Luebbers, popped up in the fourth, hit a three-run homer to right centre against Anderson in the sixth and again hit a three-run blast to a similar location facing Anderson in the seventh and finally he hit a two-run shot facing Rob Dibble to straightaway centre.     

SIGNS, SIGNS: Red Sox are so paranoid, they are going through a sequence of signs against the Cleveland Indians -- with no one on base. Reminds me of asking Barry Larkin in 1995 about his new teammate, lefty David Wells, with the Cincinnati Reds on an off day before they played the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS. “He’s kind of different,” Larkin said. “Well ... he does like to use multiple signs.” What is so different about that, everyone does that with a man on second? Said Larkin: “when it's the first pitch of the game to the lead-off hitter?”