Upton hit an RBI triple, then scored on a fielding error, in the eighth inning as the Toronto Blue Jays rallied to an 8-7 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday afternoon.
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Maybe there’s a bit, or a lot, of Atkins that also hopes Navarro can help turn around starting pitcher Marco Estrada, given the latter’s struggles of late and the fact they worked so well together last season before and during Toronto’s playoff run. Pat Light suffered his first career loss. The 2015 AL MVP jumped out of the dugout and waved in acknowledgement. Josh Donaldson holds 140 hits with 105 runs, 33 homers and 91 RBI.
It was a roller-coaster type day for Donaldson.
Twins manager Paul Molitor would prefer his team play aggressively rather than worrying about making mistakes.
The Twins will not only be trying to avoid the sweep on Sunday but trying to end a losing streak that has reached nine games.
After the game Donaldson posted a picture on Twitter of him holding up two clear garbage bags filled with ball caps that the grounds crew and Blue Jays mascot Ace had collected from the field.
Triggs (1-1) allowed three runs on four hits, walked none and fanned eight in six innings. Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson went “single, homer” to take a 6-5 lead.
“I think it’s unique to this area (the hat-trick) right, so it’s really cool”, said Jays starter R.A. Dickey “You don’t see something like that very often, I think the response was warranted”. Instead, they collided and the ball hit the turf.
Kepler dove towards the ball which ended up bouncing over his glove and towards the warning track; when Kepler went to retrieve the baseball, he kicked it away allowing Upton to trot all the way home giving the Blue Jays the lead for good.
Plouffe lead off the fourth for the Twins with a walk and then moved to third on a single by Eddie Rosario and scored on a Miguel Sano single.
The Toronto Blue Jays, who hold a one-game lead over Boston, won 8-7 over the Minnesota Twins today thanks to Melvin Upton Jr.’s “Little League HR” as the official MLB twitter account referred to it.
Bautista led off with bottom of the seventh with a single against Light, his third hit of the game, and Donaldson hit his second homer of the game to center to give Toronto the lead. (Encarnacion) was on deck after I hit the third one and he had a huge smile on his face.
Trevor Plouffe hit a solo homer for the last-place Twins.
Leading off the sixth, Tulowitzki hammered an 89 miles per hour two-seam fastball from Gibson just over the wall in deep centre to pull the Jays to within two. Both Kevin Pillar and Upton Jr. jetted around the bases on the miraculous play that put the Blue Jays ahead 8-7 in the eighth inning.
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Bautista picked his third hit of the day, a single, to lead off the seventh and Donaldson followed with his second home run on a 95 miles per hour four-seam fastball. Troy Tulowitzki lined out, but the three-run inning cut Minnesota’s lead down and set up Upton’s heroics.
