“He located his pitches down in the strike zone very well”, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. Against same-handed hitters, the righty Stroman has thrown his sinker or slider 74 percent of the time.
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Stroman is too good for his slump to last much longer. The right-hander had two strikeouts before being replaced in Toronto’s six-run third inning by left-hander Brett Oberholtzer, who pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings.Eflin allowed a double to Donaldson and an RBI single by Russell Martin in the first inning.Pillar led off the bottom of the second with his fifth homer of the season. And I’m sure his next start hopefully he’ll be better.
The Jays responded in their half of the seventh when Encarnacion belted a two-run homer to centre with one out. He was the Jays’ designated hitter Monday and Tuesday after missing the prior three games with a thigh injury.
Encarnacions two RBIs gave him an ML-best 56, one more than Bostons David Ortiz.
Hector Neris, still in the middle of the same meltdown that has ruined him over his last few appearances, melted down from the bullpen to the mound and proceeded to melt down by allowing the Donaldson dagger, as well as two more earned runs, in most of an entire inning. He walked three, struck out two, and served up three dinger balls. Tulowitzki has not played since suffering a setback while running the bases in an extended spring training game Friday.
The Blue Jays agreed to terms with second-round pick Bo Bichette and sixth-round pick David Daniels on Wednesday, according to MLB.com’s Jim Callis. “Our defense is really good, I just got to give them a chance to make a play”. He has five homers in the last four games.
Cesar Hernadez hit a solo homer off Stroman in the seventh.
The Blue Jays optioned pitchers Aaron Loup and Scott Diamond to AAA Buffalo following their 11-3 win over the Phillies on Tuesday.
The teams split two games in Toronto with the final two games of the four-game interleague series to be played in Philadelphia starting Wednesday. Franco injured his knee during a rundown in the fourth inning Sunday, landing awkwardly after tagging out Washington’s Chris Heisey.
And Donaldson came through, lashing a lazy 1-1 slider that just curled fair around the leftfield foul pole for a grand-slam home run.
Blue Jays: OF Michael Saunders left in the third with tightness in his right hamstring.
The Blue Jays dropped the first game of this series to the tune of a 7-0 thrashing in which RA Dickey took the loss but they have responded in a big way in each of the last two outings and will be out to win the series with another big outing on Thursday.
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These Blue Jays have plenty of experience against Hellickson from his days with the Rays. He became the 25th Canadian-born player to play for the Blue Jays. Estrada is unbeaten in eight starts and has won three straight decisions. Hellickson has been decent for Philadelphia this years in posting a (4-4, 4.34 ERA, 1.272 WHIP, 8.6 K/9) record in 2016.
