Elsewhere, the Miami Marlins were 5-2 winners against the San Diego Padres, the Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics 10-6 and the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants overcame the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2. Marco Estrada (5-2) allowed two runs and four hits, striking out five in 6 2-3 innings. He improved his AL-best opponents batting average to.168, 13 points better than Cleveland’s Danny Salazar.
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He has pitched better on the road than he has at home this season, which is apparent by his (2-4, 3.79 ERA, 1.237 WHIP, 10.7 K/9) record in Citizen’s Bank Park.
“That tells you how effective he is at keeping guys off balance, and keeping guys off one pitch or another”.
“My ankle is pretty sore right now and I am thinking that might be (one) reason why (his hamstring is tightening)”, Saunders said. “He grinds and competes”.
Against a struggling Phillies team, Estrada was all business. “I hope he continues to work and continues to get better”. “But he’s got great stuff, he’s just got to learn to trust it”. “Wasn’t the greatest of games, but a lot of great defense helped me. J.D”.
Donaldson had the first of two grand slams on Tuesday, with Miami’s Jeff Mathis also hitting one in San Diego. “I needed the guys and we’ll take it”. “Even with them, I had a chance to get out of the inning, but I end up giving up two runs with back-to-back hits”.
But there was Double-E, for the second time in four days – which would also be his second time all season – busting a gut and staking thievery-claim to a bag, chugging for second, which had just been vacated by Donaldson. Ryan Goins and Devon Travis, the Nos.
After a scorching weekend, the Toronto Blue Jays’ bats went cold on Monday night.
“I can’t say if I expected it or not”, said Donaldson when asked if he could have seen this kind of sustained performance level from Estrada. “Everything is fine. Everybody has bad times, you know?”
After starring this season in Triple-A, Eflin was promoted to start in Tuesday’s game against Toronto.
Toronto scored 30 runs against the Orioles in a four-game series that ended Sunday, scoring 21 runs in two games on the weekend. They put it out of reach with three more in the eighth.
Jeremy Hellickson wasn’t immediately owned by Edwin Encarnacion, but to be fair, Encarcion didn’t bat until the second inning.
The Blue Jays continued their domination of the right-hander in the third, as Ezequiel Carrera hit a two-run home run that just cleared the right-field wall.
Donaldson crushed Neris’ fifth pitch, a fastball, to left, extending the Blue Jays’ advantage to 5-2. Donaldson came in on the next pitch, a sac fly from Russell Martin. Starting him off with Josh Donaldson did not help him turn things around. Veterans Carlos Ruiz and Ryan Howard are a combined 0-for-9 against Happ with three walks and two strikeouts.
Again, it was Cody Asche who answered, driving in Andres Blanco from first with a double.
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Facing Adam Warren, Werth hit a liner off the wall in center field to score Michael Taylor, who hit an RBI single against Trevor Cahill (0-2) earlier in the inning.
