TORONTO -- Hold off on the snowblowers. Winter isn’t here in Canada yet. You can thank Marco Estrada for that.

Down 3-1 and one loss away from elimination, the Toronto Blue Jays kept their season alive with a 7-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. Estrada, who kept Toronto’s hopes alive by winning Game 3 of the division series, did so again with a sterling performance. He held opponents to the lowest batting average in the American League during the regular season, and he was even tougher on Kansas City.

After Toronto pitchers had allowed 15 hits in each of the previous two games -- plus a combined 22 runs -- Estrada held the Royals to one hit in the first 7 2/3 innings. He gave up a single to Alcides Escobar in the fourth inning and didn’t allow another hit until Salvador Perez homered and Alex Gordon singled with two out in the eighth inning. He left to a thunderous and well-deserved ovation.

The Blue Jays didn’t exactly light it up at the plate early on, either. They had just four hits the first six innings, but two of those were big. Chris Colabello gave Estrada a 1-0 lead in the second with a solo homer and Troy Tulowitzki delivered another big postseason hit with a three-run double in the sixth inning.

The series returns to Kansas City, where the Blue Jays will try to duplicate what the Royals did to them in the 1985 ALCS by winning the final three games, including the last two on the road.

Thumbs up: Estrada, of course. And also Tulowitzki. He had his third three-RBI hit this postseason, this one a bases-loaded double in the sixth that broke the game open at 5-0. He entered the game below the Mendoza Line this postseason (.194) but lifted his average to .225 and has 11 RBIs.

Thumbs down: To any Blue Jays fans who gave up on their team after Tuesday’s 14-2 blowout loss. It still won’t be easy to win the series, but as Toronto showed Wednesday, it ain’t over yet.

What’s next: The Jays can start either David Price or Marcus Stroman on short rest in Game 6. Price, who threw briefly in the pen Wednesday, has never won a postseason start but was great through six innings in Game 2 before giving up five runs in the seventh and losing. The 2012 Cy Young winner and 2015 AL ERA leader is due.