Seeing as the Toronto Blue Jays owned the best home record in the American League, it seemed like a perfect start to the playoffs that they got to play two home games to start their postseason against the Texas Rangers. Another positive was that the Blue Jays clinched the A.L. East division title well before the season ended and were able to rest their starters for much of the last week of the season; the Rangers needed a win over the Los Angeles Angels on the final day of the season to clinch the A.L. West. 

However, it was the Texas Rangers that came into Toronto and won the first two games of the best-of-five ALDS, pushing the red-hot Blue Jays to the brink of elimination. 

In Game 1, it was the long ball that propelled the Rangers past the Blue Jays 5-3 to take the 1-0 series lead. In Game 2, the Rangers won in comeback style, scoring a run in the eighth inning to tie the game and plating two more in the 14th to win the marathon game. 

The teams had a travel day today but will be back at it tomorrow where the pressure has suddenly shifted to Toronto. Veteran starter Marco Estrada of Toronto opposes young fireballer Martin Perez of Texas. Perez looks to lock down the sweep while Estrada is given the difficult task of pushing the series to a fourth game. 

Estrada has enjoyed a very good year with a career-high 13 wins (his previous high was seven wins) and a career-low ERA of 3.13. He started once against Texas this year and suffered a tough-luck loss, surrendering just a single run over six innings. Most Texas hitters have limited experience against Estrada and, for the most part, Estrada has done well against them. First baseman Mitch Moreland is 3-for-5 against Estrada but, besides that, no Rangers hitter has more than one hit against the pitcher that carried the Blue Jays when they were struggling in mid-summer. 

Perez is only 24 years of age but already in his fourth season with the Rangers. This year, he started only 14 games and went 3-6 with a 4.46 ERA. He threw nine quality starts and five quality starts in six home starts. He has not faced Toronto this season, but a few Toronto hitters, mainly Josh Donaldson (5-for-13) and Justin Smoak (4-for-11) have had some success against him. Besides those hitters, Perez has done well against the hitters that Toronto has to offer. 

The pitching matchup here doesn't give either pitcher a large advantage though Estrada may own a slight edge. Toronto certainly has a tough task ahead of them, but one positive in the situation is that Texas has the worst home record of all 10 playoff teams at just 43-38. In fact, Texas had a better record away from home (45-36) than they did at their home stadium. So at least Toronto is playing the team that is probably the most likely to drop consecutive home games but it is still a very tough hole to dig themselves out of. 

They'll be relying on Estrada tomorrow to stave off elimination as they try to force things to a deciding Game 5 back in Toronto.