Two late homers carries Jays to 8-6 win and sweep of Washington

TORONTO — Teoscar Hernandez and Yangervis Solarte hit backto-back solo homers in the eighth inning as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Washington Nationals, 8-6, on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep of their interleague baseball series.

Hernandez showed no ill effects from being hit by a pitch earlier in the game, blasting the ball over the left-field wall to give Toronto a 7-6 lead.

Solarte hit a homer to the opposite side of the park in the next at bat for the game’s final score.

Invigorated by the back-toback home runs, the 35,146 at Rogers Centre began chanting “Let’s go Blue Jays!” despite the sweltering heat in the stadium.

A heat warning had been issued for southern Ontario earlier in the day, with temperatures reaching 30 C without humidity.

Randal Grichuk went 3 for 4 on the day, including two home runs and four runs batted in for Toronto (33-38), but he was overshadowed by his teammates’ late game heroics.

Starting pitcher Sam Gaviglio struck out six and allowed three runs — two earned — over four innings. Joe Biagini had two runs charged to him in 1 1/3 innings, while Seunghwan Oh and John Axford combined for 1 2/3 of scoreless relief. Tyler Clippard gave up a run in his 2/3 of an inning, followed by Ryan Tepera’s scoreless four outs. Tepera (4-2) earned the win.

Brian Goodwin led Washington’s (37-31) offence with two hits and two RBIs. Michael Taylor went 3 for 4 with two runs and four stolen bases.

Tanner Roark gave up four runs on eight hits in four innings.