ARLINGTON, Tex. -- Toronto fans were understandably ecstatic for Thursday’s division series opener against the Texas Rangers. After 22 long years away from the postseason, their Toronto Blue Jays were finally back in the playoffs -- and the heavy favorites to not only beat Texas but go on to win the American League Championship Series and reach the World Series.

Those fans might have been reduced to crying in their poutine after watching baseball’s first two postseason games in Canada since 1993. Their Jays may be back in the playoffs, but their 22-year drought without a postseason victory is still unbroken.

Toronto never led in Thursday’s 5-3 Game 1 loss, then led briefly only to blow the lead in the eighth inning of Game 2. They lost valuable lefty reliever Brett Cecil (no earned runs since June) to season-ending injury and failed to score in the final nine innings of Friday’s crippling 6-4, 14-inning loss. And now they face an imposing challenge as the series resumes in Texas. Twenty-nine previous teams have lost the first two games at home of a best-of-five series; only two rallied to win the series.

Can the Blue Jays become the third? Sure, anything is possible in baseball, especially for a team that had a losing record and was eight games behind as late as July 28. But they will need the most powerful offense in the majors -- these Jays scored 127 runs more than the next-closest team -- to get back in top form, especially against a Texas bullpen that has allowed only one run and four hits in 11 innings while striking out 12.

Joe Carter, where are you?

“I think we need a big outburst with the bats, score a lot of runs really,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “If you look at our season, you know we score -- we score and win, we score in bunches. That’s kind of our trademark. Their pitching’s really shut us down the last two games so we need to do that to win and I think hopefully we can do it one time, catch our breath a little bit and gain a little confidence, maybe hang in this thing. But that’s what it’s going to take because really that’s the identity of our club.”

The lineup won’t be facing a Cy Young contender -- Texas starter Martin Perez was 3-6 with a 4.46 ERA this season -- while Toronto has a more successful starter going in Marco Estrada (13-8, 3.13 ERA).

Estrada injured his ankle in spring training, started the season in the bullpen and didn’t make his first start until May. But he was strong after that: He took no-hitters into the eighth inning in consecutive starts, went 12-5 with a 2.92 ERA after May and finished the season with the lowest opponents’ batting average in the American League (.203 overall and .183 after the break) and the lowest BABIP (.217) in the majors.

“Every game’s like this,” Estrada said. “You want to win every single one. I’ve pitched in the playoffs before but out of the bullpen (with Milwaukee in 2011). I got a taste of it and had a lot of fun with it. I had a lot of adrenaline going, I know how to handle it and I’ve been there before so I’m looking forward to starting Sunday.”

While the bottom third of the Texas order produced seven of the team’s 11 runs the first two games, the middle of the order didn’t do much after losing Adrian Beltre to a back injury early in Game 1; the Rangers’ No. 2-through-6 batters went a combined 5-for-39 with one run.

Beltre said his back felt roughly the same Friday as it did when he hurt it and would not say whether he could play Sunday, which is saying something given his reputation for physical toughness. He was not at Saturday’s workout at Arlington Stadium, and manager Jeff Banister said his availability is still day-to-day.

Toronto fans may be fretting over their team being unable to win a postseason game for the first time in 22 years, but at least they have two world championships to cherish. Texas has never won a World Series. And like the Blue Jays, the Rangers also were under .500 and eight games back in the second half -- in fact, that was their situation five days later in the season (August 2) than where Toronto’s was before the Rangers surged to win the AL West.

Still, they entered this series as the heavy underdogs, which they no longer are.

Asked whether the two wins gave the Rangers more confidence, Beltre replied, “We were confident before we came here.”

“We faced David Price Thursday and he won the ERA title, and we found a way to beat him,” he said. “And Marcus Stroman was 4-0 but we found a way to score runs of him. It’s the game. You can never predict who will win.”