Blue Jays' season sputters to an end as Cleveland advances to World Series

Unheralded rookie RyanMerritt, in only his second major league start, gave Cleveland the early pitching it needed and the Indians bullpen did the rest Wednesday, bundling the Toronto Blue Jays out of the playoffs with a 3-0 victory in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.

CarlosSantanaandCocoCrisphomeredfor Cleveland, which won the series 4-1.

The Indians head to the World Series, looking to erase memories of losses in 1954, 1995 and 1997. They won in 1920 and 1948. Only the Cubs (1908) have gone longer without winning the championship.

• BOXSCORE
• Millennial Merrittputs the boots to Bautista

The Indians' injury-ravaged starting rotation meant that manager Terry Francona had to hand the ball to Merritt, whose major league career consisted of four appearances and 11 innings.

You wouldn't have known it. The 24-year-old left-hander retired the first 10 Jays he faced before leaving with one out in the fifth after giving up just his second hit.

With Merritt looking cool on the mound in the 4 1/3 innings needed to get to Cleveland's excellent bullpen, the Indians picked up solo runs in the first, third and fourth to pull ahead before a sellout crowd of 48,800 under the Rogers Centre roof.

Indians reliever Andrew Miller, who anchored a fearsome Indians bullpen that the Jays couldn't solve, was named the ALCS most valuable player.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said he was proud of his team and for contending in the ALCS for a second straight year following a 22-year playoff drought in Toronto.

"To stay on top or get close to the top, near the top, I mean, it takes a lot," he said. "A lot of things have got to go your way, you've got to get some breaks. You've got to stay healthy for the most part. And you've got to be tough mentally. That's what we've got. And we turned that around last year, got in, repeated that this year.

"I'm sure there will be some disappointments and grumbling and complaining about how you fell short again, but that's not coming from me. Because I know what these guys did, and I think it's a pretty good accomplishment. The key is we want to take that next step one of these days, hopefully it's next year. But these guys, they did a hell of a job."

Toronto, which hit 10 homers in the wild-card game and ALDS, managed just two against Cleveland although it came close to adding to that total several times Wednesday. The Indians found the fence six times against the Jays. Bryan Shaw (2-0), Andrew Miller and Cody Allen pitched the rest of the way for Cleveland. Miller continued his mastery over Toronto hitters, giving up a single to pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro in 2 2/3 otherwise perfect innings.

Allen pitched the ninth, the action slightly delayed by a shirtless fan who invaded the field before disappearing at the bottom of a scrum of security near second base.

The Indians closer gave up a leadoff double to Jose BautistaBautista that got the crowd on its feet. He then struck out Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion and induced Troy Tulowitzki to foul out for his fifth save of the post-season.

"I know that I'm capable of doing a lot more," said Bautista. "They pitched great. It was tough. They seemed to make the right pitches at the right time and got us out and they never let us string base hits together and when we had men in scoring position they seemed to turn it up a notch and go to another level of execution. My hat's off to them."

"We left it all out there. They played better than us," Donaldson said. "I poured everything I had into it, you know. I love this game. I love to play this game. I have a passion to play this game, I have a passion to compete and I love playing with the teammates I have in this clubhouse.

"Whenever I look back in the mirror at the end of the day, you know, I don't have any regrets because I did everything that I could."

Toronto starter MarcoEstrada (0-2) gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in six innings.

Merritt, a 16th-round pick taken 488th overall in the 2011 draft, becomes only the second player in MLB history to make his post-season debut with only one regular season start, according to Elias Sports. Matt Moore did it for Tampa in the 2011 ALDS.

He gave up two singles with two strikeouts and no walks in a 49-pitch performance that featured 33 strikes.

"I know they were counting on me," Merritt said. "Before the game, they came and told me they had my back, everybody had my back, good or bad. So that takes some pressure off, and I just went out there and pitched and trusted my team."

"What I hoped would be that he would be himself. Because I thought that was a tall task just for that, under the circumstances," Francona said of Merritt's performance. "If he was just himself then you let the chips fall. And he threw strikes. He worked ahead, even with an 85-, 86-mile-an-hour fastball, you saw him beat their barrel a number of times.

"He didn't let the noise get to him. He was phenomenal. And I'm sure when all is said and done a game like this will go light years in his development, in his maturity."