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.
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Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki also hit a home run for Toronto, a solo job in the sixth. When the former Faith Academy and Auburn standout clouted his third home run of Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays fans showered the field at the Rogers Centre with caps to celebrate Donaldson’s “hat trick”. And he bolstered the Jays’ lead to 9-6 in the ninth with another homer to center field off of Alex Wimmers.
“We fought hard all game”, said Upton, who doesn’t remember ever hitting anything close to an inside-the-park home run.
“That’s one part of our team we don’t have a whole lot of, is team speed”, Gibbons said.
“It’s one of those things, as a baseball player, you want to happen one day”, Donaldson said. “I come in here, go about my business, do my work, have fun, try to be loose with everybody. that’s part of who I am”.
The Twins lost again.
Hopefully some more late-game heroics during September can prepare Toronto for playing better in the ladder section of their potential October games. “Eddie was on deck after I hit the third one and he had a huge smile on his face, that kind of brought it into reality a little bit there”.
Jason Grilli (5-3) and Roberto Osuna each worked a scoreless inning of relief, with Grilli earning the win and Osuna getting the save.
This will be Gibson’s first start of the season against the Blue Jays.
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.
WHITE SOX 9, MARINERS 3: Jose Abreu hit the first of four White Sox home runs and Jose Quintana pitched 72/3 solid innings for host Chicago.
With one out in the eighth inning and Kevin Pillar on second base, Upton flared a ball into shallow right field.
Toronto scored in the bottom of the fourth when Encarnacion walked and Michael Saunders doubled.
Showing that he still has speed to burn at age 32, Upton took advantage of a couple of misplays by Twins’ right-fielder Max Kepler.
Blue Jays: Donaldson hopped around in pain after fouling a ball off the outside of his right knee in the first.
Twins: Triple-A OF Logan Schafer will join the team in Cleveland Monday to replace Santana.
Pitching for the Blue Jays on Monday will be RHP Marco Estrada.
Blue Jays catcher Josh Thole fully understands the reasons why the club traded for another catcher, Dioner Navarro, on Friday – even if it means his immediate future with the club is now up in the air. Gibson has struggled this year, putting on a 5.09 ERA for the season and a 6.16 ERA in his last three starts. Santiago missed his last turn with a bruised thumb.
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Donaldson’s two-run homer (74-56) in the seventh gave Toronto a 6-5 lead and helped extend the Twins’ (49-81) losing streak to 10 games.
