TORONTO – Edwin Encarnacion had a home run and three RBIs to back pitcher Esmil Roger’s strong outing against his former club and the Toronto Blue Jays won their seventh straight with a 8-3 interleague victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
The Jays (34-36) are rolling right now, having won 11 of their last 14 games since June 2 and outscoring their opponents 73-38 in that span.
Maicer Izturis and catcher J.P. Arencibia also went deep for Toronto, which hasn’t won seven straight since Aug. 30 to Sept. 9, 2008.
Rogers (3-2) pitched 6 2-3 innings while giving up three runs – two earned – and four hits in his fourth start of the year and first against his former team. He played parts of four seasons with the Rockies before being traded last year to Cleveland for cash considerations.
Canadian Jeff Francis, making his fourth career start against Toronto, had an unwelcome homecoming. The Colorado left-hander (2-5) and North Delta, B.C., native was roughed up for 10 hits and eight runs, including all three homers, over six innings.
It was his first loss against the Jays in four tries, and second trip to Toronto, his last coming on Aug. 25, 2011, a 9-6 win when he was with the Kansas City Royals.
The Jays jumped on Francis early starting with leadoff hitter Melky Cabrera putting a line drive up the middle for a base hit, then advancing on a ground out before coming home on Encarnacion’s laser to the centre-field wall. Designated hitter Adam Lind sent one back to centre, scoring Encarnacion, and Mark DeRosa doubled to the left-field corner to put runners on second and third.
Rajai Davis, filling in for Colby Rasmus in the lineup, put another into left to score Lind, but DeRosa was caught out at third for the second out. Arencibia stroked a pitch to left to bring home Davis and prompt a visit to the mound from Rockies pitching coach Jim Wright. Francis stayed in the game and induced a ground out from Izturis to contain the damage at 4-0 Toronto.
The Canadian lefty settled down in the second and pitched three scoreless innings to keep pace with a sharp-looking Rogers, who had Colorado hitless through five.
Again it was Cabrera who led the attack as he put a Francis pitch into deep right to open the fifth inning with a single. That set up Encarnacion’s two-run blast over the left-field wall for his 19th home run of the year, putting Toronto into a comfortable 6-0 lead.
The Rockies finally got a hit off Rogers in the sixth when Jonathan Herrera cracked a single to centre. Colorado, however, stranded the runner as Rogers retired the next two batters, including a strike out on Josh Rutledge for his fifth K of the game.
Toronto piled on Francis in the sixth when Arencibia, with a second-deck rocket into left, and Izturis hit back-to-back jacks – a first for Toronto this season.
Colorado (37-35) cut its daunting deficit in the seventh when Rosario singled to centre with runners at the corners and no outs. That brought home Carlos Gonzalez before Arenado grounded out to score Michael Cuddyer, ending the night for Rogers. The 22,852 at Rogers Centre gave a standing ovation to the 27-year-old Dominican as he headed for the dugout with a smile on his face.
Reliever Aaron Loup came in but the Rockies scored one more to make it 8-3 on an error by Izturis.
Toronto’s Darren Oliver and Steve Delabar pitched a clean eighth and ninth, respectively.
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