Blue Jays ban sale of beer cans at top levels of Rogers Centre

The Toronto Blue Jays banned selling beer cans in the upper deck at the American League Championship Series after fans threw them on the field during a ruckus earlier in the playoffs.

Starting Monday night, beer was to be poured into plastic cups in the upper deck at Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays made the change after some fans reacted to a ruling on a bizarre play in the seventh inning of Game 5 in the Division Series against Texas by pelting the field with cans, striking some fans in the lower levels as well.

Mario Coutinho, vice president of stadium operations and security, said the new policy for beer sales was the only change made for the ALCS against the Royals.

"We reviewed all our staffing levels and police deployment, and we're confident that was adequate," Coutinho said. "We did our own internal assessment after [Game 5] with the police and then Major League Baseball followed up as well."

Coutinho wouldn't say how many Toronto police officers would be at Monday's game, but said the number was "fairly high." The Blue Jays reserved the right to cut off beer sales after the fifth inning if there are any problems.

Detroit lefthander Daniel Norris said he kept pitching this year after finding out he had a cancerous growth on his thyroid.

In a message on social media Monday, the 22-year-old said he found out the growth was malignant but was told by a doctor he could wait until the end of the season to have it removed.

Norris was traded from Toronto in late July in the deal that sent David Price to the Blue Jays. Al Avila, who was promoted to replace Dave Dombrowski as Tigers general manager shortly after the trade deadline, said the team knew about Norris' condition when it acquired him and expects him to recover in full.

Barry Zito is retiring just as he planned. The lefthander made the announcement in an article he wrote for "The Players' Tribune" posted Monday, saying, "I'm retiring today from baseball, but I'll never be too far away from the game that made me who I am."

The 37-year-old said last month when called up to the Oakland Athletics following a season in the minor leagues that he planned to retire. The 2002 AL Cy Young Award winner with the A's, Zito went 165-143 with a 4.04 ERA in parts of 15 seasons, which also included seven years across the Bay with the San Francisco Giants.

• Mets ace Matt Harvey threw in the outfield at Wrigley Field, and the team said he should be fine for Game 5 if the NL Championship Series goes that far. Harvey was hit by a comebacker off the bat of Dexter Fowler in Game 1 against the Cubs on Saturday.

• Detroit pitching coach Jeff Jones decided to retire after 38 years in baseball. A Detroit native, the 59-year-old has been Tigers pitching coach since July 2011, with Justin Verlander (2011) and Max Scherzer (2013) winning AL Cy Young Awards under him.