Fans lean on a concourse rail above the manual scoreboard at Safeco Field after the Toronto Blue Jays scored eight runs against the Seattle Mariners in the fourth inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, in Seattle. The Blue Jays have scored 13 runs in their last three games and three or less runs in six of their last nine games.
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Edwin Encarnacion stayed hot with a two-run double and tied his career high for home runs in a single season by pounding number 42 of 2016.
Blue Jays: LHP J.A. Happ (19-4) goes for his 20th win.
The Mariners are also 1 1/2 games behind Detroit (80-70) and one game behind Houston (80-71) in the wild-card race. However, they won their next eight games, averaging just 2.4 runs allowed per game over that span.
“I actually came back up in the tunnel here and threw a little bit with Josh Thole trying to keep my arm loose”, Happ said.
It’s debatable how much fans can impact the result of a baseball game, and I’m sure an atmosphere like the one we saw Monday night influences each player (on both sides of the equation) differently. The club’s steadiest starter didn’t get the all-star nods teammates Marco Estrada and Aaron Sanchez received, but instead became a 20-game victor for the first time, and only the sixth pitcher to reach the plateau in franchise history.
“Everywhere we go we get a pretty good turnout”, Jays manager John Gibbons said before the game.
“That’s kind of been the story of our season”, Servais said.
Martin and Saunders each homered off Hisashi Iwakuma (16-12) during the Blue Jays’ big inning.
Troy Tulowitzki followed with a single and Saunders then launched his 24th homer of the season far over the wall in right, ending a drought of 41 at-bats without a homer or an RBI.
The lightning in the inning was supplied first by Ezequiel Carrera, who read a looping Devon Travis fly ball, realized it was either fair or foul, but would not be caught and raced all the way around from first base, scoring with a head-first slide. Nori Aoki (14-for-38, .368, since reclaiming his starting job in left field) and Seth Smith (11-for-35, .314, with four home runs over the Mariners’ last dozen games) have been getting the job done in the top two spots in the lineup, but Cano, who hits third, has not been following up.
He would strike again in the eighth via a long solo home run. “Unfortunately, the shutdown inning was nonexistent”. “I’m not going to lie, coming out here yesterday pre-game when the gates open up, you see all the Blue Jays coming in, when they sing “O Canada” and it’s that loud I’m like, ‘Oh boy”.
Martin and Michael Saunders become the first Canadian-born teammates in Major League history to hit 20+ home runs in a season. But Russ lately has just been on fire, really turned his season around. I would say we couldn’t get him either way.
On Happ going out and doing what he’s done all season: “Yeah that one inning they put a couple on the board, some tough plays”.
“He’s the same guy we’ve always seen”, Robinson Cano said. Though he has lost just once in his last 13 decisions, the rough outing elevated his ERA above 3.00 for the first time in over two months. In the first, Walker took a line drive off the palm of his right hand, which he used to protect himself from a 103 miles per hour liner off the bat of slugger Edwin Encarnacion.
“You never want to give a team extra outs, especially a team that swings the bat like that”, manager Scott Servais said. The Yankees have plated 628 runs, which places them near the bottom of the league in that category.
Blue Jays: RHP Aaron Sanchez (13-2, 3.17 ERA) gets the start in the afternoon series finale at Safeco Field. Entering Monday, he’d allowed four or more runs in five of his last six starts. The Mariners are 4-0 in their last 4 during game 3 of a series and 7-2 in Hernandezs last 9 starts.
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The Blue Jays are 2-5 in their last 7 road games and 22-6 in Happs last 28 starts.
