TORONTO-- What started out as the inning from hell turned into seventh heaven for the Toronto Blue Jays as they channelled their anger into a four-run burst and a trip to the American League Championship with a 6-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.
With the best-of-five series level at 2-2 a tense game turned during a stormy seventh inning, which had managers and umpires checking the rule book, featured two dugout clearing confrontations, an incensed capacity crowd showering the field with debris and Toronto playing the game under protest.
Jose Bautista then belted a three-run homer to give the Blue Jays a lead they would not surrender.
Things had turned bizarre when Toronto catcher Russell Martin's throw back to the pitcher deflected off Choo Shin-soo's bat and trickled to the infield allowing Roughned Odor to speed home from third to put Texas in front 3-2.
Confusion followed as both managers charged from the dugout to plead their cases to home plate umpire Dale Scott.
As the debate dragged on, the crowd filled the air with jeers and debris, some of which came close to hitting players.
Toronto's John Gibbons argued that Choo had interfered with Martin's throw back to reliever Aaron Sanchez but after a video review the run was confirmed.
"Choo's standing in the batters' box doing what he always does, the play's not dead, the ball was thrown, went off of Choo's hand," said Texas manager Jeff Banister. "It's still a live baseball. That's the rule.
"So how about my guy being heads-up and scoring on that play and not keeping his head down, because that's who we are."
That focus vanished in the bottom half of the seventh inning as the Rangers self-destructed and committed three consecutive errors on routine hits to allow Toronto to load the bases.
After Josh Donaldson hit a single into center to score Dalton Pompey to tie the game, Bautista slammed a three-run homer into the second deck, tossing the bat with added flair that prompted another benches-clearing confrontation.
" "I know crazy things happen in this game, especially this time of year ...I'm still not certain what happened, what was going on what the ruling is," said Gibbons.
"Really it came down to the rules are what they are and I'm still a bit in the fog about that.
"But you didn't want something like that to be the deciding run in a game of this magnitude, so that was kind of my beef. But the umpire crew did a great job, they really did."
INDORE, India-- India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hammered 92 not out and skilfully marshalled his bowlers to secure a series-levelling 22-run win against South Africa in the second one-day international on Wednesday.
With India reeling at 124-6, Dhoni's decision to bat first appeared to have backfired, but the 34-year-old produced an 86-ball blitz, hitting his fourth sixth off the final ball of the innings to help the hosts to a competitive 247-9.
Dhoni then returned to neatly stump Amla, take three catches and cleverly rotate his bowlers as South Africa were all out for 225 in the 44th over.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel claimed career-best figures of 3-39, while paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar also got three wickets as the hosts fiercely defended a modest total, aided by some smart catching.
"A lot of people wait with open sword, they want you to commit a few mistakes and have fun with it," said Dhoni, who has been under tremendous pressure with questions raging about his role in the squad.
"Overall I would not say a very good or a complete game, definitively we can play better, but it's good to win games," said the India captain after collecting the man-of-the-match award.
The Proteas had made public their plans to dismiss India's in-form batsman Rohit Sharma early and paceman Kagiso Rabada executed it in the second over of the day.
Ajinkya Rahane (51) hit his second successive fifty but India lost the top half of their batting order soon after crossing the 100-mark.
With his team in dire straits and his own reputation at stake, Dhoni let his bat do the talking as he went after the South African bowlers, helping India score 82 runs off the last 10 overs.
The visitors began their chase well but the Indians struck regularly to keep the Proteas in check at Indore's Holkar Cricket Stadium.
Patel wrecked the tourists' top order and Virat Kohli made amends for his batting failure by taking three catches, two of them sent back South Africa's topscorer Faf du Plessis (51) and the dangerous AB de Villiers.
"We had a good start upfront... there is enough experience among myself, (Farhaan) Behardien and (David) Miller to pull it through but unfortunately we got out soft ways tonight," said De Villiers.
Rajkot hosts the third ODI of the five-match series on Sunday.
CHINA-- World number three and defending champion Roger Federer suffered a surprise defeat in the second round of the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday, losing 7-6(4) 2-6 6-3 to Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
AMSTERDAM-- The Netherlands failed to reach the European Championship for the first time since 1984 as they lost 3-2 at home to the 10-man Czech Republic in their final qualifier on Tuesday to miss out on Euro 2016.
The Dutch, third at last year's World Cup in Brazil, saw their hopes of a dramatic rescue act in the campaign evaporate as they conceded two first-half goals.
The former European champions had to win and hope Turkey lost at home to Iceland to sneak into third place in Group A and book a slot in next month's playoffs.
However, the Netherlands were consigned to fourth spot behind the Turks, who won 1-0 to secure a place at the finals in France as the best third-placed team.
The loss left the Dutch with 13 points from their 10 matches behind Turkey on 18, while the Czechs claimed top spot in the group with 22 points, two ahead of Iceland.
Pavel Kaderabek and Josef Sural stunned the hosts with goals in the first period and the game was over when substitute Robin van Persie headed into his own net in the 66th minute. The Dutch consolation goals came from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Van Persie.
"The truth is we gave it away," said midfielder Wesley Sneijder told Dutch NOS radio. "We needed to be disciplined and sharp because we weren't going to get too many chances.
"We knew it would be tough but to so easily concede goals meant it was all over for us early in the game."
A second half change in tactics by the Dutch to full-out attack failed to turn around a dire situation despite the Czechs being down to 10 men after the sending off of Marek Suchy just before halftime for a last-man tackle.
By then they were 2-0 down with the Czechs having taken the lead midway through the first half with some simplicity, exposing some shoddy defending as the Netherlands went behind for the fourth time in five home matches in the group.
Fullback Pavel Kaderabek was allowed to run in from the left after some clever passes from Tomas Necid and Jiri Skalak and slam the ball home with ease after 24 minutes.
Eleven minutes later they scored again courtesy of more woeful Dutch defensive work. Virgil van Dijk turned his back on a tackle and allowed Josef Sural to force his way down on goal and beat goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet at his near post.
It prompted an immediate change from Netherlands coach Danny Blind with striker Robin Van Persie brought on and defender Jairo Riedewald sacrificed.
The home side were given a glimmer of hope just three minutes before halftime when Memphis Depay was caught by a mistimed tackle from Suchy, who was sent off.
But despite even more attacking changes after the break, the hoped for comeback did not materialise as the Netherlands hoofed long balls towards the Czech defence.
The Dutch woes were complete midway through the second half when Van Persie, in his 101st appearance, headed an innocuous looking free kick from Jiri Skalak into his own net.
A largely silent crowd finally found something to cheer with 20 minutes to go when Huntelaar rose above the defence to head past goalkeeper Petr Cech.
Van Persie then scored at the right end as he poked home a flick on from Bas Dost with seven minutes left.
The Netherlands were European champions in 1988 and third in 1992, 2000 and 2004. They went out at the group stage of the last edition at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.
TEXAS- - The Kansas City Royals pulled off a feat of remarkable daring in the 2014 American League Wild Card game.
And what they did on Monday was remarkably similar as they again overcame a four-run deficit to stave off elimination against Houston and send the AL Division Series back to Kansas City for a decisive fifth game.
