Surging Braves put an end to Blue Jays’ winning streak
ATLANTA 10 TORONTO 6
TORONTO — Mike Bolsinger didn’t mince words on Monday night, calling his performance unacceptable and taking the blame for the Toronto Blue Jays’ five-game win streak ending.
The right-hander went 4 23⁄ innings and allowed six runs, five earned, on eight hits in Toronto’s 10-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves in interleague play.
Justin Smoak had a two-run homer in the ninth inning but it was too late for the Blue Jays (17-22), who had their season-high streak snapped.
“When your team puts up six runs, in my opinion, that should be a win,” Bolsinger said. “I really didn’t give my team a chance to win tonight.
“The team has been playing so good, hitting the ball so well, we’ve been on a hot streak and I kind of feel like I put that to an end.”
Freddie Freeman hit his 13th home run and Nick Markakis drove in three runs for the Braves (14-21), who have now won three of four.
Bartolo Colon (2-4) allowed three runs, two earned, on seven hits over five innings earning his first win since April 16.
“That was real big, because this is a hot ball club,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker. “We come in here and these guys are swinging the bats really well. I know [Colon’s] been pitching a long time, but I guarantee you an outing like that will do a lot for him and his confidence going forward.”
Markakis got the Braves on the board in the first, driving home Freeman and Matt Kemp with a two-out single off Bolsinger. Then in the fifth, with Atlanta leading 4-2, Markakis drove home Kemp with a two-out single.
Two batters later, Atlanta knocked Bolsinger (0-2) from the game on an RBI single from Adonis Garcia.
“It was a tough outing for him, I didn’t think he had his good curveball, which is kind of vital to him,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “Consistently he couldn’t do it. Then I thought we were going to get to Colon a little bit, we took some good swings off him, we hung around and they blew it open.”
Freeman put the game out of reach with a three-run home run off reliever Leonel Campos in the sixth to give the Braves a 9-3 lead.
The Braves took an early 3-0 lead in the second when Garcia scored on a sac fly from Dansby Swanson.
Toronto got on the board in the bottom half of the second on Devon Travis’s RBI double.
Atlanta added to its lead in the fourth as Swanson’s one-out singles scored Garcia from second giving the Braves a 4-1 cushion.
The Blue Jays cut the Braves’ lead in half in the bottom half of the inning when catcher Mike Ohlman singled, scoring Travis from second. The hit was the first of Ohlman’s big league career.
Trailing 6-2 in the fifth, Jose Bautista drove in Kevin Pillar with a one-out double off the wall in left.
Garcia’s RBI single in the sixth gave the Braves a 10-3 cushion.
Toronto added a fourth run in the seventh on an RBI single from Travis and Smoak added his tworun home run in the ninth, driving in Bautista.
Travis finished the game 3-for-5 with two RBIs in the loss.