Blue Jays avoid sweep with victory over M’s
Encarnacion hits his 224th home run in a Toronto uniform
TORONTO — J.A. Happ came close to unravelling early in Toronto’s 2-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Sunday.
A key strikeout of Nelson Cruz in the fourth inning turned things around, and the Blue Jays left-hander went on to earn his seventh straight win.
Happ began the fourth with a walk and a hit batsman before falling behind 2-0 to Cruz, who had racked up seven RBIs on a grand slam and three-run homer the previous day.
Two straight four-seam fastballs evened the count 2-2, another four-seamer got Cruz swinging on 3-2 count, and Happ followed that with a second strikeout and pop up to end the inning.
“That’s kind of my best pitch so I tried to use that and get ahead with that,” Happ said of the pivotal at-bat. “When you’re not hitting on your other stuff you have to rely on that … I was just trying to really locate there and mix it up with the changeup and I think that helped.”
Happ (13-3) notched a careerhigh in wins while walking four and striking out six through six of one-hit ball as the Blue Jays avoided a three-game sweep.
He started the game with a 12-pitch first inning, but started to show some trouble over the next three, walking the leadoff batter in each of the second, third and fourth innings before hitting Robinson Cano to set up the crucial Cruz at-bat.
“A couple of big strikeouts and I think that set the tone, especially for him,” said Josh Thole, who started his third straight game behind the plate in place of an injured Russell Martin. “I know his pitch count got up a little, but that was the inning that got him right where he needed to be.”
Edwin Encarnacion hit his 224th home run in a Blue Jays uniform in the fourth inning to pass Vernon Wells for third place on the franchise’s all-time list and Thole scored the other run for Toronto (55-44) on a double play in the sixth.
Brett Cecil worked around a one-out walk for a scoreless seventh, Jason Grilli pitched a perfect eighth, and Roberto Osuna earned his 20th save with a clean ninth.
The dominant pitching performance was needed following a 14-5 loss to Seattle on Saturday.
“It makes it easy on me,” Thole said. “We were in a really good rhythm the whole game. Up and down, the guys came in with a game plan ready to go and it was a big win, especially after yesterday.”
“You look at what happened yesterday, that’s the beauty of baseball,” added manager John Gibbons. “You can turn around and throw a one-hit shutout.”
Wade Miley (6-8) allowed two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out four through six innings to shoulder the loss for the Mariners (50-48), who had won the first two games of the three-game weekend series at Rogers Centre.
“I felt like I wasn’t quite as sharp as in my last outing, but I was able to make some pitches and get out of most of the jams,” Miley said.
Thole led off the sixth inning with a double and advanced to third on a fielder’s choice, sliding under the tag of Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager. Seattle challenged the umpire’s safe call and it was upheld after a one minute 24 second review.
Thole later scored from third to give Toronto a 2-0 lead when Josh Donaldson hit into a double play.