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Rangers-Blue Jays: 3 things to know for Game 1 of the ALDS

Peter Llewellyn / USA TODAY Sports

"Touch 'em all, Joe. You'll never hit a bigger home run in your life."

For more than two decades, Tom Cheek's most enduring call evoked a glorious past that existed mostly in stories from dad, or grandpa. Since Carter's jubilant trip around the bases in 1993, an entire generation of Canadian kids turned into adults without so much as one postseason run, spending every October gearing up for hockey season instead of watching the Blue Jays vie for a third World Series championship.

On Thursday, however, that woebegone generation will get its first chance to forge their own postseason memories when the Blue Jays host the Texas Rangers for Game 1 of the American League Division Series in Toronto, a city reuniting with postseason baseball after a 22-year estrangement.

Here are three things to know for Game 1 of the ALDS:

PRICE? CHECK.

When the Blue Jays finagled David Price from Detroit in July, GM Alex Anthopoulos probably didn't expect the former Cy Young winner to start the franchise's first playoff game since 1993 on 11 days' rest. Price, who crafted a 2.30 ERA with a 4.83 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 11 starts for Toronto, hasn't pitched since Sept. 26, when he allowed five runs in five innings against Tampa Bay -- unequivocally his worst outing since joining the Blue Jays.

All that additional rest should give Price an advantage in Thursday's series opener, right? Not necessarily. Throughout his career, the 30-year-old has fared best when sticking to a normal schedule, crafting a 3.04 ERA with impeccable peripherals when he gets four days between starts. On six or more days of rest, however, it's a different story.

Split (GS) ERA WHIP HR/9 BB/9 K/9
4 Days (113) 3.04 1.09 0.80 2.23 8.80
5 Days (76) 3.16 1.17 0.74 2.15 8.23
6+ Days (23) 3.25 1.22 1.08 3.31 8.60

LANGUISHING LEFTIES

Though Price isn't at his most dominant on extra rest, he might not have to be. Only two AL teams averaged more runs per game than Texas, which managed a .770 OPS after the break, but the club's lefty-heavy lineup also posted the AL's fourth-worst wRC+ against left-handers in 2015.

Split BA OPS ISO K% BB%
vs. LHP (TEX) .253 .734 .161 21.6 8.1
vs. RHP (TEX) .260 .741 .153 19 8.2

While manager Jeff Banister will try to engineer as many favorable matchups as possible - Mike Napoli, for instance, will likely start in lieu of either Mitch Moreland or Josh Hamilton - the Rangers' lineup will still feature a number of mainstays whose production tails off dramatically against southpaws.

Split (2015) Prince Fielder Shin-Soo Choo Mitch Moreland Josh Hamilton
OPS vs. LHP .724 .708 .681 .726
OPS vs. RHP .923 .917 .876 .736

It doesn't bode well for the Rangers, then, that Toronto also employs arguably the best left-handed reliever in the AL not named Andrew Miller or Zach Britton. Brett Cecil, who last surrendered an earned run on June 21, struck out 39.8 percent of the lefties he faced in 2015 while allowing just one home run in 83 plate appearances.

AN ACE BY YOVANI OTHER NAME ...

Surrounded by nearly 50,000 rabid fans deprived of postseason baseball for two decades, in a building where the Blue Jays won three out of every four games this season, can't the Rangers take some solace in the fact that Yovani Gallardo is starting? Gallardo, after all, didn't allow a run in 13 2/3 innings against the Blue Jays this season, limiting Toronto's hitters to a microscopic .284 OPS across two starts.

Thing is, though, of the six players on Toronto's ALDS roster with at least 10 career plate appearances against Gallardo, all but one boast an OBP of at least .400. Although Gallardo has done an admirable job suppressing sluggers like Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson, his inability to miss bats led to plenty of nibbling, which could spell trouble against the litany of talented hitters in Toronto's lineup.

Name PA OBP OPS HR
Troy Tulowitzki 28 .429 1.095 1
Edwin Encarnacion 19 .421 1.296 3
Ben Revere 19 .421 .892 0
Russell Martin 30 .400 .661 0
Josh Donaldson 10 .400 .733 0
Jose Bautista 15 .267 .350 0

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