SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE
Pillar’s blast helps Jays sweep Mariners
Kevin Pillar continued TORONTO to flash a red-hot bat on Sunday, smashing an Edwin Diaz offering over the wall in left field in the ninth inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 3-2 walk-off victory in their Mother’s Day matchup against the Seattle Mariners.
The centre-fielder’s smash came on a 1-1 pitch from the right-handed Diaz and was a rope. It was Pillar’s fifth homer of the season and Toronto’s fifth straight victory.
The game marked the return of right-hander Aaron Sanchez, who pitched five innings, gave up five hits and one unearned run and walked two and struck out four. He didn’t figure in the decision.
Justin Smoak hit his seventh home run of the year in the sixth while Jarrod Dyson hit his first homer of the season in the seventh for the Mariners.
The Jays’ injury woes continued when left fielder Steve Pearce hit a one-out double to right-centre in the second and hurt himself sliding headfirst into second.
Toronto had a chance to jump on the board in that inning, but with men on third and second and one out, Devon Travis and Ryan Goins both struck out.
On the other hand, the Mariners failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity to open the scoring in the top of the fourth when Sanchez walked Nelson Cruz to lead the inning and then gave up a single to Kyle Seager with one out.
But Pillar made an outstanding back-handed catch on Danny Valencia — he might have misread the ball initially — and Sanchez then got Taylor Motter and Guillermo Heredia to ground out.
Dyson tied the game 2-2 in the seventh when he sent Dominic Leone’s first offering over the fence in right, a no-doubter dinger that saddled the Jays reliever with a blown save.