Encarnacion keeps Blue Jays win streak alive with walk-off home run

TORONTO – Edwin Encarnacion didn’t have to wait long for a fastball from A.J. Ramos.

He got it on his first pitch.

Down 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Encarnacion hit a two-run, walk-off home run to rally the Toronto Blue Jays to their seventh straight win, 4-3 over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday.

“I just try to make good swings and look for my pitch and the homers come,” Encarnacion said.

“I was looking for my fastball at the beginning of the count. He threw me a first-pitch fastball and I didn’t miss it.”

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Josh Donaldson led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to right field – also on the first pitch he saw from Ramos. After a strikeout to Jose Bautista, Encarnacion hit his 13th homer of the season over the centre-field fence.

Encarnacion, who was back in the lineup Tuesday after receiving a cortisone shot on Saturday for a shoulder injury he sustained over the weekend, also hit a sacrifice fly as the Blue Jays (30-30) climbed back to .500 for the first time since May 12.

“Right now I feel 100 per cent, I don’t feel pain,” Encarnacion said. “I just have to keep doing my treatment.”

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons was thrilled the have his power-hitting DH back in his batting order.

“That’s why it’s so important to have Eddie in the lineup healthy because he can do that,” Gibbons said.

“We’re on a roll, we’re feeling good. You get on those rolls where good things happen and you start believing they’re going to happen, and who knows.”

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Bautista drove in another run and Jose Reyes was 2 for 4. Reliever Liam Hendriks (2-0) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win.

Giancarlo Stanton hit two home runs – his 20th and 21st of the season – and Christian Yelich also homered for the Marlins (24-35). J.T. Realmuto had three hits.

“His swing right now and where he is with his balance and letting the ball travel, he looks good. He’s so strong,” Marlins manager Dan Jennings said of Stanton. “Right now he’s locked in and that can be a good thing because he can do a lot of damage when he gets like that.”

Even Toronto starter Mark Buehrle couldn’t help but be impressed with Stanton.

“The guy’s a beast out there, man,” he said. “I think people know that.”

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Buehrle pitched six innings, giving up two runs and six hits with one intentional walk (to Stanton in the fifth inning). He also struck out three batters. Roberto Osuna gave up Stanton’s second homer of the game – a tie-breaking shot with two out in the seventh inning.

Dan Haren went seven strong innings for Miami, giving up two runs on just three hits while striking out seven batters. Ramos (0-1) was charged with the loss after giving up his first home run since May 28, 2014.

Stanton’s first homer of the game over the left-field fence gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead in the first inning and halted Buehrle’s scoreless-innings streak at 17.

Yelich got to Buehrle in the fourth inning with a two-out solo homer to the second deck in right field to extend Miami’s lead to 2-0.

The Blue Jays finally scored on Haren in the bottom of the fourth.

Reyes led off the inning with a double – the first Toronto hit of the night – advanced to third on a single from Donaldson and crossed the plate on Bautista’s sac fly to right field. Encarnacion’s sac fly to left drove in Donaldson to make it 2-2.

Haren had retired the first nine batters he faced prior to the fourth inning and 12 of 13 the rest of the way.

Aaron Loup pitched a scoreless eighth for the Jays, who were outhit 10-5.