The baseball dove inside the batter’s box and caromed off Alcides Escobar’s leg, and players from the Royals and Toronto Blue Jays benches darted onto the field. They met near the pitcher’s mound, culminating in a 50-man, all-out shoving match.
On a sunny August afternoon in Toronto, a baseball rivalry was born.
Two months later, it advances on to a national stage.
For the first time since that skirmish, the Blue Jays and Royals will meet Friday at Kauffman Stadium — this time in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.
Both teams closed out their respective American League Division Series on Wednesday — the Royals with a 7-2 win against Houston and Toronto with a 6-3 win against Texas that included some fireworks of its own.