Blue Jays beat up on defenceless Phillies
Take 3 of 4 as Happ, 8-3, earns win
PHILADELPHIA• Someday, the Phillies will be good again. Just not Thursday.
Right now, they are just a box to be checked off. When the season began they were one of those pleasant April surprises, punching above their weight class. Since then, reality has set in and they have lost 20 of their last 26 games.
They have become one of those ‘ must beat’ outfits. A trip to Citizens Bank Park is all business, and the Blue Jays were in the butt-kicking industry the past three days, winning three out of four in this home-and-home set.
The most critical development for the Blue Jays in this game occurred in the bottom of the seventh when Jose Bautista crashed into the wall in right field chasing a fly ball and had to come out of the game. He limped off the field in pain.
In the last three games of the series, the Jays outscored the Phils 31-7, capped by a 132 thrashing and were never in serious danger of losing at any point beyond Monday.
J. A. Happ, making a rare trip back to his baseball roots, was about as sentimental as a tax auditor. He mowed the Phils down on three hits over seven innings.
Kevin Pillar hit a pair of home runs, Edwin Encarnacion, Michael Saunders and Devon Travis one each to highlight Toronto’s season-high 17-hit attack. Encarnacion drove in four runs to increase his league- leading total to 61. He has driven in 15 in his last seven games.
The Blue Jays continued a recent trend by striking for multiple runs in the first inning when a pair of early home runs gave them a 3- 0 lead. After Josh Donaldson’s one-out single, Encarnacion stepped up and belted his 18th homer of the season to give Toronto a 2- 0 lead. The Jays were still high- fiving when Saunders connected for his 12th homer to make it 3-0.
On this night, Phillies starter Aaron Nola took it on the chin. He gave up another run in the third on a Russell Martin RBI- single and then was sent packing in the fourth when the Jays racked up four more runs.
In the fourth, the Philadelphia defence collapsed like a cheap suitcase. Ryan Goins led off with a double. When Happ attempted to sacrifice himself, catcher Cameron Rupp fumbled the ball and both runners were safe. Bautista then singled home Toronto’s fifth run. After Donaldson walked, Nola was dismissed. Reliever Colton Murray fared no better. Encarnacion greeted him with a two- RBI single and then left fielder Tyler Goeddel lost Martin’s routine fly ball in the evening sky for an error that scored another run before Murray got things under control with the scored at 8-0.
Pillar’s sixth home run in the seventh made it 9- 0. Devon Travis belted his second home run to make it 10-1 in the eighth. In that same inning, Phils’ centrefielder, Odubel Herrera, after catching a fly ball off Saunders, tossed the ball in the stands, thinking it was the third out. That moved Encarnacion up two bases and he scored on Martin’s double. That allowed Pillar to come to the plate to hit his second homer of the game.