Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Aaron Sanchez throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Indians, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Cleveland.
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“We won two of three, and had the lead for about 10 minutes”, said Indians manager Terry Francona.
Ahead 2-1, Toronto threatened to break open the game in the seventh.
Stroman worked 7 1/3 innings, striking out nine, and left with the bases empty and a 2-1 lead. Allen struck out the first two batters of the inning, but the next two, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion, both drew walks. Russell Martin lined out to right to end it.
Fiers (9-6) gave up just one run on five hits with seven strikeouts and a walk over a season-tying high seven innings.
Melvin Upton Jr. led off the third with his third home run for Toronto since being acquired from San Diego at the trade deadline.
MARLINS 3, PIRATES 2: Christian Yelich homered in the first inning and Miami added a pair of unearned runs to complete a three-game sweep in Pittsburgh.
With several thousand Blue Jays fans making the five-hour drive from Toronto to Cleveland, the ballpark was packed for all three games of the series, bringing a playoff-atmosphere to Progressive Field, and the games didn’t disappoint.
Tyler Naquin’s walkoff inside-the-park home run gave Cleveland a 3-2 victory Friday, and the Blue Jays won 6-5 Saturday.
Sanchez’s workload has been a looming concern for the Blue Jays for some time. “They got the best of us this weekend”, Gibbons said. However, time had been called before the balk was called. After a lengthy discussion, Goins was sent back to third and Clevinger struck out Encarnacion on the next pitch.
Left-hander Aaron Loup was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to take Sanchez’s spot on the roster.
Now, he must spend 10 days in the minor leagues, and the Blue Jays already have his next start cued up – against the Baltimore Orioles, who entered Sunday 2 1/2 games behind them in the East.
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Since Sanchez pitched just more than 100 combined innings with the Blue Jays and in the minor leagues last season, Toronto is carefully monitoring his work load. That process began Sunday morning as the team optioned right-hander Aaron Sanchez down to Advanced Single-A Dunedin in order to skip his next turn in the rotation. In 17 relief appearances with Buffalo, Loup was 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA. Ramirez is hitting.382 (39-for-102) during the streak.
