Jays are double trouble for Mariners
Comeback win after four-run 8th inning
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. 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 DH, 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 in the season in the fourth for Toronto. He also picked a double and a single
The Mariners went 1-for10 with runners in scoring position.
Toronto starter Jaime Garcia pitched well, but continued his trend of not going past the six 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 left field line, the speedy Gordon scoring from first. Segura went 3-for-4 on the night.
Two batters later, Nelson Cruz smacked a line drive to short stop 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, firstinning visit to the mound by manager John Gibbons. Whatever the manager said worked, as Garcia ended the inning by striking out Ryon Healy with a 89.3 MPH fastball.
Seattle jumped on the board again with two out in the third when Haniger smacked a ground rule double to the gap in left centre, scoring Segura. Haniger finished the game with a double and three walks.
Hernandez led off the sixth with a ground-rule double off reliever Chasen Bradford. Hernandez was originally awarded a triple, but upon review he was sent back to second. It the original call remained, Hernandez would have scored on a fly ball to centre by Solarte and the game would have been tied 2-2.
With Hernandez at third, and two out, Justin Smoak walked on a 12-pitch at-bat. Bradford was pulled for another right-hander Nick Vincent to face Kevin Pillar, who lined out to right.
With two out in the seventh, Maile smacked a triple to centre.
Dalton Pompey walked, bringing up Hernandez, who already hit a home run, double and single. Hernandez flew out to right to end yet another Jays threat.