Upton Jr. hit an RBI triple past a diving outfielder and continued home on a misplay, completing Toronto’s rally from a five-run deficit and sending the AL East-leading Blue Jays over the Minnesota Twins 8-7 Saturday. Donaldson hit two home runs apiece in games against the Red Sox (5/27), Royals (7/5), and Astros (8/3) this season. “You don’t know it it’s ever going to happen, it’s kind of a rare thing (and) I was happy to do it”.
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“It doesn’t get any better than that”, manager John Gibbons said. “He’s capable of that, we have a few guys who are capable of doing something like that, it’s a rare feat”. That prompted Molitor to pull Gibson from the game for Light, who got Jays catcher Thole to hit into a double play to end the inning.
The Rogers Centre faithful celebrated the milestone hit with chants of “MVP, MVP” and by throwing hats onto the field (the baseball version of a hat trick). The sellout crowd of 47,485 at Rogers Centre roared as the burly Encarnacion – not known for his speed – bore down on home plate as he rounded third.
“I’ve never had a curtain call before so that was nice”.
“I was just running, man”, said Upton, who wasn’t sure he would bother to watch the replay.
Ivan Nova threw six sharp innings before leaving early because of a hurting left hamstring, and Pittsburgh hit three solo homers to rally for its eighth straight road victory.
How we all feel after that come-from-behind win! “It was a team effort all around and Josh had a special day today, it was neat to sit back and watch him to do his thing”.
After Plouffe had re-established the Twins’ four-run advantage, the Jays loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh, prompting manager Paul Molitor to replace Santana with right-hander Ryan Pressly.
Bo Schultz allowed a walk and Plouffe’s ninth home run of the season in the seventh as the Twins bumped their lead to 7-3.
Josh Donaldson, who’s batting average is only.234 after the sixth inning, screamed a line drive to right-field for two runs in the seventh inning.
The Toronto Blue Jays have rediscovered their offense while the Minnesota Twins are going the extra mile to find creative methods to continue their losing ways.
A fourth inning leadoff walk to Trevor Plouffe was followed by a series of groundballs that made it through the infield, one to right, another to left, a double between Edwin Encarnacion and the first-base bag.
Upton’s hit bounced past Twins right-fielder Max Kepler, bringing Blue Jays fans to their feet as Pillar scored.
Donaldson made up for his ninth error of the season nearly immediately, smoking a Gibson offering into the second deck in left in the bottom half. The three-run inning cut Minnesota’s lead down and set up Upton’s heroics.
Dickey ran into trouble in the fifth giving up a one-out single to Rosario, followed by walking Dozier and Joe Mauer to load up the bases for Kepler once again. Miguel Sano hit a two-run single.
Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki also hit a home run for Toronto, a solo job in the sixth. The ball dropped in for a double, and Bautista later scored on a sacrifice fly.
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RHP Bo Schultz was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo on Saturday when LHP Aaron Loup was designated for assignment, Schultz add a power arm to the bullpen.
