The Toronto Blue Jays are heading to the American League Championship Series for the second successive year after a thrilling Game 3 victory against the Texas Rangers. The final was 7-6 in 10 innings and the Blue Jays actually won on a grounder that could have gotten the Rangers out of a jam.

Russell Martin was at the plate with runners on first and second with one out. He sent a weak grounder to short and the Rangers attempted to turn two. Second baseman -- and public enemy number one to Blue Jays' fans -- Rougned Odor made a poor throw on the turn and Josh Donaldson kept running from second, rounding third and all the way home to win it. It was an error on Odor, but first baseman Mitch Moreland could have done a better job in handling it, too.

Donaldson actually deserves a ton of credit for getting the inning started with a double. He had a huge series, too, going 9 for 18 with five doubles.

Edwin Encarnacion also had a big series. His two-run homer in Game 3 meant that he ended the three-game series with three home runs and seven RBI.

The Rangers deserve credit for battling back in this one. They were down 5-2 through three innings, but ended up taking a 6-5 lead in the sixth on a Moreland double. An Odor two-run homer in the fourth helped close the gap, too.

Still, the Blue Jays' offense was the story all series and it was again on Sunday, putting up seven runs on 10 hits.

The Blue Jays now await the winner of the Indians-Red Sox series for the AL pennant.

And now some things to know about ALDS Game 3 in Toronto ...

1. Josh Donaldson remains an underrated baserunner.

The reigning AL MVP of course gets attention for his power and his defensive excellence at third base. However, he's also an asset on the bases, even if that's an overlooked skill of his. Those skills and instincts were certainly on display when he dashed home from second to clinch the series in the 10th inning ...

He's not a high-volume base stealer, but for his career, he's an impressive 30 for 34 (88.2 percent) when attempting a steal. Earlier this season, he was caught stealing for the first time since 2013. Also, during the course of his career, Donaldson has been slightly above average when it comes to taking the extra base. By positional standards, he has been well above average. Those faculties certainly served him well in a big spot on Sunday night.

2. Colby Lewis' weakness continues to be the long ball.

During the regular season, Lewis, the Rangers' Game 3 starter, allowed 19 home runs in only 116⅓ innings. That comes to 1.5 homers per nine innings, and if he had logged a qualifying number of innings then he would've been tied for sixth in all of MLB in that category. This isn't anything unusual for Lewis; he has allowed 178 bombs in his career, and in 2011 led the AL with 35 allowed. Thirty-seven times in his career he has given up at least two homers in a game, so in that sense it wasn't a surprise that the powerful Blue Jays took him deep twice in the early going.

3. The Jays keep hitting homers.

Speaking of home runs, the Jays in the regular season ranked third in the AL in that category, and while the Rogers Centre is a nice environment for power hitters they tallied the majority of their 221 home runs on the road. Also, the Jays ranked fourth in all of baseball in the percentage of their runs that come from homers. So they're good at hitting the ball out of the park, and they're reliant upon hitting the ball out of the park.

That hasn't changed in the playoffs ...

That tweet was sent out just after the second of the Jays' two homers on Sunday, and it doesn't reflect that the Rangers went on to his a pair of home runs in Game 2. Still, the Jays this postseason have hit as many home runs as the Rangers, Indians, Red Sox and Orioles combined. Little wonder those Jays are now 4-0 in these playoffs.

4. Jonathan Lucroy struggled.

Lucroy was probably the best all-around player to get moved at the non-waiver trade deadline, and without question he made the Rangers a better team. However, Lucroy ended this series 1 for 12 at the plate, and that one hit was a single in Game 3. He ended the ALDS with an OPS of .166. As well, Lucroy, normally a rock-solid defender behind the plate, committed a critical passed ball in Game 3 that allowed Troy Tulowitzki to score the tying run in the sixth.

5. The Rangers showed some fight.

In Game 3, Texas was down 2-0 in this series and playing in front of a Rogers Centre crowd that was of course hostile in the extreme toward their aims. They also got in a hole early ...


Source: FanGraphs

After Edwin Encarnacion plated Donaldson in the third to give the Jays a 5-2 lead, the Rangers' chances of winning Game 3 dropped to less than 15 percent. Still and yet, they chipped away until Mitch Moreland's two-run double in the sixth game them a 6-5 lead. That lead wouldn't hold, but the fact that the Rangers climbed out of that early hole speaks well of their efforts in Game 3. They fell shy of their ultimate goal this season, but they didn't go quietly in the last game they'll play in 2016. That's consoling knowledge of a sort.

6. The Rangers' drought continues.

Texas entered the 2016 season as one of only eight franchises never to win the World Series. (The others are the Rays, Rockies, Mariners, Nationals, Padres, Brewers, and Astros.) The Rangers have two pennants to their credit, but they lost in the World Series each time. In 2010, the fell to the Giants in five games, and in 2011 the Cardinals edged them in miraculous and agonizing fashion.

The Rangers have been around since 1961 (they were the second version of the Washington Senators until they relocated to Texas after the 1971 season). So they are indeed overdue. In fact, only the Cubs (1908) and Indians (1948) have gone longer without winning the title. Those two teams are of course still alive and in very good position in the 2016 postseason.

7. The Blue Jays will get some time off.

The three-game sweep of the Rangers means Toronto will have plenty of time for some R&R before the ALCS begins. Said ALCS will begin Oct. 14. That means the Jays get four full days of rest in advance of that pennant-determining series against Boston or Cleveland. That's the most rest they've had since the All-Star break, and at minimum they'll have one more day of rest than their ALCS opponent. The four days off also gives the Jays time to reset and structure their rotation the way they want to -- a good thing, especially for a team that played in the wild-card game.

You'll see some convenient false narratives about "losing momentum" with a long layoff, but these guys have been playing games since early March. The safe assumption is that a few days of rest in the middle of October is a very good thing.