By: Andrew Hendriks

Canadian Baseball Network

For nearly 25 years, Mark Shapiro dedicated every waking minute of his working life to the enhancement of the Cleveland Indians and their minor league system. 

Beginning as the Tribe's Director of Player Development in 1991, the Princeton graduate assumed a variety of different roles within the organization prior to becoming Cleveland's General Manager in 2001, and President shortly after 2010's regular-season.

Having played a hand in securing seven Central Division titles and two American League pennants, in addition to the systematic development of numerous stars such as Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and C.C. Sabathia, Shapiro has left a lasting impact on his former organization. One that continues to fuel the admiration he receives from industry peers, pundits and fans alike.

When he signed on to succeed Paul Beeston as the Blue Jays President and CEO in 2015, Shapiro knew that the organization he was leaving was primed to win big. He also knew that he was about to join something special north of the border.

As fate would have it, Toronto and Cleveland will square off in this year's American League Championship Series and with the two clubs having swept their divisional series rivals, the stage is now set for not only a dramatic postseason showdown but also a compelling behind-the-scenes narrative.

Like Shapiro, Blue Jays General Manager Ross Atkins also comes equipped with valuable intel on the team his squad is set to take on this weekend in Ohio.

Appointed Director of Cleveland's Player Development in 2006, Atkins oversaw the fine tuning  on each of Cleveland's homegrown stars prior to landing in Toronto last winter. That list includes Cody Allen, Jason Kipnis, Corey Kluber and Francisco Lindor in addition to Trevor Bauer and Carlos Santana, who both signed with other clubs but later reached the Majors with the Tribe.

Could the first-hand knowledge of a ball club that Toronto's brass essentially built factor into the way the Blue Jays approach this October matchup?

I guess we'll find out.

SEASON SERIES

Despite outscoring the Tribe 38-24 over seven regular-season matchups, Toronto dropped the season series 3-4 in 2016. That record includes back-to-back blown saves at Progressive Field, a 19-inning Canada Day loss, one historical Cleveland cycle and a 17-run crushing of Kluber along with the Tribes normally lights out relief staff at SkyDome.

As a team, Toronto slashed .255/.344/.442 with 12 doubles and 13 home runs off Cleveland pitching in 2016. The 13 home runs were the Blue Jays third most hit against any non-AL East team and ranked behind only Minnesota's 18 and Houston's 14, respectively. 

Blue Jays hurlers pitched to an ERA of 2.78 with 74 strikeouts and only 10 free passes over 71 and a third innings of work. In four games at the Prog, they allowed only nine earned runs while limiting AL Central champs to a WHIP of 1.026.

Collectively, Cleveland slashed .227/.261/.375 with nine doubles, two triples and nine home runs off Blue Jays pitching in 2016. In support of the sticks, their pitching staff recorded an ERA of 4.82 with 87 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.493. 

MOUND MATCHUP

Similar to the opener of this year's ALDS, Marco Estrada has been tabbed to get the Blue Jays going on Friday.

With a brilliant  8+ inning performance in Texas last week, Estrada has now made four postseason starts with Toronto while limiting opposing teams to an OBA of .217 with 21 strikeouts and only one walk allowed over 27 and 2/3rds innings. Entering tonight, his combined ERA of 1.98 represents the lowest postseason figure posted by any Blue Jays starter in franchise history.

In Estrada's lone appearance against Cleveland this season, the Toronto's righty tossed five frames of three-run ball while allowing a pair of home runs and striking out seven on the day.

Cleveland counters with Kluber, the club's ace right-hander and landslide winner of the 2014 American League Cy Young Award. After shutting down the Boston Red Sox to the tune of three hits over seven scoreless frames last week, Kluber is set to face the Blue Jays for the third time this season. 

In five career starts vs. Toronto, the 30-year-old native of Birmingham, AL, has gone 1-3 with an OBA of .291, a WHIP of 1.67 and a cumulative ERA of 5.34, the latter of which represents his highest individual total vs. any opposing club in the American League.

Estrada will be followed by J.A. Happ, Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez while Cleveland is expected to go with Trevor Bauer, Josh Tomlin and Mike Clevenger, respectively. 

OF NOTE

Toronto's dramatic walk-off on Sunday represented the sixth consecutive American League Divisional Series game the Blue Jays have won dating back to 2015. The last team to win six straight DS tilts was the New York Mets, who won seven between 2000 and 2015.

Despite playing in 15 career postseason games with Colorado, Troy Tulowitzki never had a multi-RBI contest prior to last October with Toronto. Since that point, he has five with 16 RBI over that stretch (15 games).

Both Toronto and Cleveland's pitching staff have only spent two innings each trailing their opposition during postseason play. The Blue Jays hurlers have pitched with a lead in 21.1 of the 39 innings they accumulated so far while the Tribe's staff has benefited from insurance in 19 of their 27 combined frames.

-Follow Andrew Hendriks on Twitter (@77hendriks)