TORONTO – Jose Bautista, Devon Travis and Dalton Pompey homered as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 12-7 on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre for their first home victory of the season.
Josh Donaldson scored twice and drove in three runs as Toronto outhit the Rays 13-11. The Blue Jays gave starter Mark Buehrle plenty of early run support, scoring multiple runs in each of the first five innings for the first time in franchise history.
Buehrle (2-0) allowed seven hits and three earned runs over six innings as Toronto (5-4) ended Tampa Bay’s four-game winning streak.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons moved Donaldson up three positions into the No. 2 spot in the batting order and it paid off. He singled in the first inning – one of his three hits on the game – to get on base ahead of Bautista’s rainbow homer.
Toronto tacked on three more runs after loading the bases in the second inning against Rays starter Erasmo Ramirez (0-1). Jose Reyes hit a nubber down the third-base line that brought home Justin Smoak and Donaldson followed with a two-run single.
In the third, Kevin Pillar drove in Dioner Navarro with a double before coming home on a Travis double that just missed clearing the wall in right-centre field.
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