Donaldson hits two-run homer in Toronto win
OAKLAND, Calif. — Back when he played here, Josh Donaldson watched many a hard-hit ball get halted by the wind at the Oakland Coliseum short of going over the outfield fences.
So he didn’t want to count on his 10th-inning drive going far enough.
It had plenty on it, and it still feels plenty sweet to make an impact where he began his big league career in 2010 — even in a different uniform.
Donaldson hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the 10th against his former club, Justin Smoak also homered in the inning for his second long ball of the day, and the Toronto Blue Jays avoided a sweep by beating the Athletics 7-5 on Wednesday.
“Any home run’s nice. The fact of the matter the situation it was in to be able to come through for my team like that, with the circumstances, I was able to do that a few times when I played here, too,” Donaldson said. “It was nice to kind of be able to come back and hit one in a timely situation.”
Frankie Montas (1-1) plunked Kevin Pillar to start the inning and bring up Donaldson, who clobbered a 1-2 fastball and hit a high drive clearing the wall in left-center.
Liam Hendriks tossed two perfect innings over the eighth and ninth with three strikeouts for the A’s, but Montas couldn’t hold down Donaldson. After drawing three walks, the 2015 AL MVP hit his seventh homer of the year as he plays catch up after missing time with a calf injury.
“I hit it pretty well,” Donaldson said. “I didn’t know because how high that I hit the ball, I’ve hit many balls in this stadium that were like that and kind of got knocked down by the wind and the air.”
A’s manager Bob Melvin sent the third baseman out of town with the skipper’s bobblehead doll as a parting gift.
Ryan Tepera (4-1) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the win, while Roberto Osuna finished for his 14th save.
Yankees 8, Red Sox 0
NEW YORK — CC Sabathia won his fifth straight start to beat Rick Porcello in a matchup of Cy Young Award winners, and Chris Carter drove in four runs with a three-run homer and an RBI single that led the New York Yankees over the Boston Red Sox.
Sabathia (7-2), who had last won five in a row in April 2012, allowed five hits in eight innings, his longest outing since April 2015. He walked none and struck out five — four of them looking.
The left-hander has a 1.11 ERA during his streak, and all five wins followed losses by Masahiro Tanaka, who had supplanted Sabathia as New York’s ace. Sabathia was removed after 95 pitches, denying him a chance for his first shutout since 2011.
Former Mississippi State pitcher Jonathan Holder finished with a perfect ninth. Boston’s final 15 hitters went down in order.
Didi Gregorius hit a go-ahead home run starting the third and Carter homered for the second straight day, his sixth this season. Carter’s fourth-inning drive followed Starlin Castro’s leadoff triple and an RBI single by Gary Sanchez, dropped from second to sixth in the batting order.
New York stopped Boston’s three-game winning streak and reopened a two-game lead over the second-place Red Sox in the AL East.