Blue Jays follow win ... with win
Toronto wins second straight game for the first time since May 1
The Blue Jays have won backto-back games for the first time in more than a month.
The Jays followed a walkoff win over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday with a three-homer night Friday that backed J.A. Happ’s 100th career win — 5-1 over the same Orioles.
The victory marked the first consecutive wins for the Jays since they collected three straight from April 29 to May 1. It snapped a 33-game stretch without back-to-back victories, the third longest streak of its kind in franchise history.
It was Pride Night at Rogers Centre and the ballpark was decorated with festive rainbow flags, the international symbol for LGBTQ rights. Forte, Toronto’s Gay Men’s Chorus, sang the national anthems as a massive flag including the Jays logo was stretched across the field by members of the LGBTQ community. Ambassadors from the You Can Play Project, an organization dedicated to ensuring equality, respect and safety for all athletes regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Josh Donaldson did not re- turn for the celebration. The third baseman, on the disabled list since May 29 with left calf tightness, was eligible to make his comeback Friday night but manager John Gibbons said before the game that the Jays will have to wait a little longer.
“Day-to-day thing,” Gibbons said. “He is feeling better but he probably needs ... maybe it’s a couple more days, I would hope.”
Happ, 8-3, recorded the rotation’s sixth consecutive quality start, giving up just one unearned run and two hits in seven innings. It is the longest stretch of quality starts the staff has had since putting together seven in September 2016. Happ also walked two batters and struck out three.
The Jays’ defence played fast and loose early, failing to execute four plays in the first three innings alone. A throwing error by Devon Travis in the second inning cost Toronto. The second baseman was trying to complete a double play on a Trey Mancini grounder but his throw was low and wide of first baseman Justin Smoak. Danny Valencia, who had walked to open the inning, scored on the miscue.
The stumbles only cost the Jays one run. Russell Martin tied the game in the bottom of the second with a two-out solo home run, his sixth of the year.
Randal Grichuk, who made the defensive play of the night with a diving catch in foul territory to rob Manny Machado in the sixth, gave the Jays the lead with another solo shot in the fifth. Grichuk has six hits, five for extra bases, over the past four games.
The Jays continued to add a run an inning. Martin cashed in Teoscar Hernandez with a long single to left field in the sixth, Hernandez tripled to score Yangervis Solarte in the seventh — his five triples are as many as the Jays hit collectively in 2017 — and Kevin Pillar added a solo homer in the eighth.
The insurance runs injected some life into the crowd of 28,863 fans and, after back-toback nights of extra innings, those in attendance were able to breathe easy as Seunghwan Oh and Ryan Tepera, who got the save, shut down the Orioles over the final two innings.