With the game on the line in extra innings, the Toronto Blue Jays’ hottest player came through with another big hit.
Edwin Encarnacion hit an RBI single in the 10th inning and Toronto beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 Sunday.
Encarnacion has reached base safely in 16 of his past 28 plate appearances and is riding a season-high 13-game hitting streak. He’s hitting .409 (18 for 44) over that span.
“He feels very good at the plate and is obviously seeing the ball well,” Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. “He’s not expanding the strike zone, he’s getting good pitches to hit, and he has done an excellent job for us.”
Encarnacion, who did not speak to reporters, was batting .240 on July 6. He had a three-hit game the next night, a four-hit game the following night and hasn’t looked back since. He went 2 for 5 Sunday, boosting his average to .287.
“When you look at the total number of walks he has drawn since the all-star break, it’s a drastic difference from the first half,” Farrell said.
Eighteen of Encarnacion’s 27 walks this season have come since the break.
Elsewhere in the AL it was: Chicago 6 Kansas City 2; Texas 7 Oakland 6; Seattle 5 Boston 3; and Baltimore 8 Detroit 5. Minnesota at Cleveland and Tampa Bay at New York were postponed due to rain.
At Toronto, Yunel Escobar walked to begin the 10th against Fernando Rodney (2-5). Mark Teahen struck out and Jose Bautista walked before Hisanori Takahashi came on to retire Adam Lind on a popup. Encarnacion followed with a base hit up the alley in left-centre, scoring Escobar with the winning run as Encarnacion’s teammates ran out and mobbed him at second base.
“Not a good road trip,” Angels outfielder Torii Hunter said of a 2-4 swing through New York and Toronto. “We’ll just have to try and bounce back, starting tomorrow.”
Second in the AL West, the Angels return home Monday to open a four-game series against Texas. The Angels play the Rangers seven times in their next 12 games.
“It’s make or break here coming up,” starter Dan Haren said. “This is probably one of the toughest stretches of our schedule.”
Sunday’s defeat was the fifth time this season the Angels have lost when leading after eight innings.
“We feel that if we get leads on a consistent basis, we’re going to hold them,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “Our issue has been the margins by which we’ve been getting leads late has been very, very tight. With deep offences, that one-run lead in the eighth or ninth puts a lot of pressure on guys.”
Jon Rauch (5-3) pitched one inning for Toronto.
Trailing 4-3 to begin the ninth against Angels closer Jordan Walden, Colby Rasmus hit a one-out double off the wall in right and scored when rookie Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C., followed with a double to centre.
“I missed with a couple of fastballs,” Walden said. “I should have kept them down. One of those days, I guess.”
For Walden, the blown save was his major league-leading eighth of the season. He’s blown six on the road, also most in the big leagues.
Bautista hit his major-league leading 34th home run and Eric Thames also connected for the Blue Jays, who had lost six of 10 coming in.
“Jordan is still going through his growing pains as a closer,” Scioscia said. “He just couldn’t close out that ninth.”
Walden’s blown save spoiled a solid effort by Haren, who allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings. He walked none and struck out five.
The Angels opened the scoring with a two-out rally in the first. Bobby Abreu singled and came home when Hunter followed with a drive to left, his 15th.
Peter Bourjos tripled in the third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alberto Callaspo but the Blue Jays closed the gap with two runs in the fourth.
Haren had set down the first 10 batters in order before Thames homered to right. Bautista followed with a drive to centre, breaking a tie with New York Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson. It was the seventh time this season the Blue Jays have gone back-to-back.
Bautista had gone 3 for 28 with 11 strikeouts since his most recent homer, Aug. 4 at Tampa Bay.
The Angels made it 4-2 in the fifth on back-to-back doubles by Bobby Wilson and Bourjos but Toronto answered in the sixth when John McDonald doubled, took third on a fly ball and scored on an RBI groundout by Thames.
McDonald reached on an infield single to begin the eighth against Downs and moved to second on Yunel Escobar’s sacrifice. Rajai Davis pinch hit for Thames and hit a grounder to short, with McDonald getting thrown out at third. Davis tore his left hamstring while running to first, and was replaced by Mark Teahen.
Blue Jays left-hander Brett Cecil allowed four runs and five hits in seven innings, the fifth time in six starts he has worked at least seven. He walked none and struck out three.
White Sox 6 Royals 2
At Chicago, Brent Lillibridge hit a three-run homer, John Danks pitched six strong innings and the White Sox beat Kansas City.
—
Rangers 7 Athletics 6
At Oakland, Calif., David Murphy hit a tiebreaking RBI single with two outs in the ninth inning, helping the Rangers finish off a three-game series sweep.
—
Mariners 5 Red Sox 3
At Seattle, Charlie Furbush allowed just one run in a career-best seven innings, leading the Mariners to the victory.
—
Orioles 8 Tigers 5
At Baltimore, Nick Markakis homered and drove in four runs, and Jo-Jo Reyes allowed four hits over six innings to earn his first win with the Orioles.
Comments