Toronto’s Kevin Pillar, left, dives for home plate as he scores in front of Royals catcher Salvador Perez during Monday’s game in Toronto.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Kevin Pillar, the Toronto Blue Jays human highlight reel, started racing back as soon as the ball cracked off the bat of Lorenzo Cain in the first inning, knowing it could be trouble.
The Kansas City Royals had already stunned the Blue Jays with one quick run and Pillar was intent of limiting the damage.
His legs churning furiously like pistons, Pillar tracked the ball to the edge of the warning track in centre field where he reached up and watched as the ball nestled safely into his glove before his momentum sent him crashing into the wall.
Pillar then fell flat on his back where he laid there for just a moment, seemingly revelling in the moment as a capacity gathering of close to 50,000 at Rogers Centre roared with unbridled passion.
It was just the second out of the first inning, but the play seemed to revitalize the Blue Jays to the primary task at hand, which is survival in their American League Championship Series against the Royals.
After Pillar's Grade-A catch, the Blue Jays roared back, scoring three runs in the second inning and then piling on with six more in third that would help lift Toronto to a resounding 11-8 victory Monday night.
At the same time, the Blue Jays served a stern notice that the best-of-seven ALCS, which the Royals now lead 2-1 with the next two games in Toronto, is anything but a fait accompli.
After an embarrassing defensive miscue in Saturday's game in K.C. that helped the Royals to a 6-3 victory, Toronto second baseman Ryan Goins redeemed himself in a big way, his two-out single in the second scoring two of the three Blue Jays runs.
With Toronto leading 3-1, it was time for the big boppers to get busy.
First Troy Tulowitzki and then Josh Donaldson hammered home runs in the big six-run, third-inning uprising off Johnny Cueto, the reeling K.C. starter.
Goins added to the home run parade with a solo shot in the fifth, giving him three runs batted in on the game. Donaldson also drove in three of the runs as did Tulowitzki, the Toronto shortstop.
For Donaldson, it was his third home run of the playoffs.
For Tulowitzki it was his second, both three-run shots making him the first Blue Jay in franchise history to have multiple three-run home runs in the postseason.
It was as though the Blue jays were making up for lost time after failing to record any homers in the first two games of the series in Kansas City over the weekend.
The Royals won both those games making Monday's contest in Toronto an almost must-win scenario for the Blue Jays, who would ill afford to go down 3-0 in a best-of-seven affair against the AL defending champs.
"It's not an elimination game, but they win it, your back's really against the wall," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said before Monday's game. "It's important to win. We'll approach it like that.
"But to be honest, I feel good coming home here. The guys have a good frame of mind, I think, so we'll see what happens."
Toronto will send knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey to the mound for Game 4, which has a 4:07 p.m. (ET) start, to face right-hander Chris Young.
If their fans were in any way disheartened by the Blue Jays struggles in Kansas City, it was not evident at Rogers Centre. The stadium was crammed with noisy fans who howled their support for the home team from the opening pitch.
The game got off to a rousing start for the Royals when Alcides Escobar stroked a line drive into shallow right field that Jose Bautista raced in to try to catch.
At the last moment Bautista realized he wouldn't be able to get there and the ball glanced off his body as he tried to block it. By the time Bautista tracked it down, Escobar was standing on third with a leadoff triple.
Escobar would then score on an infield groundout by Ben Zobrist that momentarily silenced the gathering before Pillar's defensive gem revved the energy level back up to capacity.
It was a tough night all around for Cueto, whose name was mockingly shouted out by the fans while he was in the game, which was not for long.
Cueto lasted just two-plus innings and allowed eight Toronto runs off six hits while walking four and provided his taunting fans with a loopy grin as he walked off the field.
Marcus Stroman started for Toronto and he was just okay in earning his first career playoff victory, allowing four Royals runs off 11 hits over 61/3 innings.
Despite a solid, all-round night, Tulowitzki refused to go into the night gently, getting tossed from the game in the top of the eighth inning when he started yammering at home plate umpire John Hirschbeck.
Tulowitzki had been called out on strikes the previous inning and presumably that matter was still on his mind as he returned to the field to take up his defensive position.
Tulowitzki had to be restrained from getting right in Hirschbeck's face by bench coach DeMarlo Hale before he was finally hustled off the field.