Toronto enjoys eighth-inning hit parade
It was double trouble for the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night.
Trailing 2-1 in the eighth inning, the Blue Jays hammered four doubles — all off Mariners reliever Juan Nicasio — to run away with a 5-2 victory.
DH Josh Donaldson led off the eighth with a double to right-centre. Yangervis Solarte followed that up with a double to left to score Donaldson. The next batter, Justin Smoak, slashed another double to centre to score pinch runner Anthony Alford, giving the Jays the 3-2 lead. Right after that, Kevin Pillar hit a long single to left to score Smoak. Pillar was thrown out at second on the play. Russell Martin slashed yet another double. And with two out, Luke Maile hit a single to score Martin.
Martin also made a number of outstanding defensive plays at third with Donaldson the designated hitter, including fielding a grounder by Mike Zunino with his hand and then firing it to first for an out in the third.
Outfielder Teoscar Hernandez smashed his sixth homer of the season in the fourth for Toronto. He also picked up a double and a single.
The Mariners went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Toronto starter Jaime Garcia pitched well, but continued his trend of not going past the sixth inning. He was pulled after five innings, trailing Seattle 2-1. Garcia gave up three hits, five walks and struck out three. He also threw a wild pitch and hit Kyle Seager. He made his catcher work, in this case Maile, as he normally does, by throwing a lot of pitches into the dirt.
The Mariners didn’t waste any time getting to Garcia, though the Jays were lucky to escape the first inning with only one run scored. Garcia struck out the game’s leadoff hitter Dee Gordon on a wild pitch, allowing Gordon to make it to first.
The next batter, Jean Segura, smacked a double along the leftfield line, scoring the speedy Gordon from first. Segura went 3-for4 on the night. Two batters later, Nelson Cruz smacked a line drive to shortstop Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who wisely went home, catching Segura in a rundown for the second out.
After walking Mitch Haniger, Garcia hit Kyle Seager in the hand to load the bases, prompting a rare, first-inning visit to the mound by manager John Gibbons. Whatever the manager said worked, as Garcia ended the inning by striking out Ryon Healy.
Seattle jumped on the board again with two out in the third when Haniger smacked a groundrule double to the gap in left centre, scoring Segura. Haniger finished the game with a double and three walks.
Hernandez cut the score in half by hitting a leadoff homer, a 440foot blast to the second deck in centre in the fourth. The Jays left two runners on base in the inning.