Jays hope to complete comeback

A lot of people might be wanting to knock off work early for this afternoon’s Blue Jays game.

After taking two games in Arlington, the Blue Jays host the Texas Rangers in the fifth and deciding game of their American League Division Series at 4:07 pm.

Marcus Stroman, who pitched seven innings in game 2, will start for the Jays, while Texas counters with Cole Hamels.

It’s still not certain what role, if any, David Price will play.   He says he can still pitch despite throwing 50 pitches in relief in game 4 in Texas on Monday.

Manager John Gibbons had said that Price couldn’t pitch today, but he opened the door a little in his comments yesterday.

Price is the only lefthander the Jays could draw on from the bullpen unless Aaron Loup returns by game time after dealing with a family emergency.

Meanwhile a petition on change.org calling for Major League Baseball to allow the dome at Rogers Centre to be open this afternoon has now passed 20,000 signatures.

Fans point out that there’s neither a high risk of rain, nor an expectation of the temperature being less than the minimum 10 degrees specified in the operating guidelines.

But a Rogers official tweeted last night that it’s still going to be too cold to risk the aging roof mechanism seizing up, even if the league were to give the okay.

Fans are concerned because the Jays had a losing record with the dome closed in the regular season, while they won 38 times and only lost 14 when it was open.