Toronto Blue Jays (left to right) Yan Gomes, Omar Vizquel, Brett Lawrie, Rajai Davis, and Travis Snider celebrate their 10-4 win over the Oakland Athletics during MLB action in Toronto Thursday July 26, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim
July 26, 2012 - 3:30 PM
TORONTO - Edwin Encarnacion and Kelly Johnson homered Thursday as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated Oakland 10-4 to end the Athletics' winning streak at seven games.
A three-game sweep for the surging A's looked likely when they took an early 3-0 lead, but Blue Jays came back to tie it 3-3 on Encarnacion’s fourth-inning homer. After Oakland went ahead again by a run, the Blue Jays took the lead for good with two runs in the sixth.
Left-hander Aaron Laffey allowed five hits — including home runs to Josh Reddick and Brandon Inge — three walks and four runs in 5 2/3 innings for Toronto, but reliever Brandon Lyon pitched 1 1/3 solid innings of relief and picked up the win.
Oakland left-hander Tommy Milone (9-7), who made a throwing error in the sixth to allow a run to score, gave up six runs, five earned, and eight hits over seven innings.
The Athletics (53-45) are 16-3 in July, while the inconsistent Blue Jays (49-49) ended a two-game skid.
Reddick hit his 22nd homer of the season with two out in the first inning give Oakland a 1-0 lead.
Inge hit his 11th homer of the season with two out in the fourth to put Oakland up 3-0. The two-run shot scored Yoenis Cespedes, who had an infield single to shortstop with one out.
The Blue Jays tied it in the home fourth when Encarnacion hit his 27th homer of the season after Rajai Davis and Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C., had singled.
They were the first Blue Jay hits of the game.
Reddick's fielder's choice grounder to second scored Jemile Weeks from third as Oakland took a 4-3 lead in the fifth.
Weeks walked with one out , Coco Crisp doubled and Jonny Gomes walked to load the bases. The Blue Jays got only a force at second on Reddick's grounder to second baseman Johnson to allow the run to score.
Laffey left the game after Kurt Suzuki singled with two out in the sixth. He was replaced by Lyon, who was acquired last Friday in a trade with Houston. Lyon struck out Brandon Hicks to end the inning and had two more strikeouts in the seventh.
The Blue Jays took a 5-4 lead in the home sixth with some help from Milone's throwing error.
Colby Rasmus and Lawrie started the inning with singles and each moved up a base on a wild pitch.
Travis Snider bunted near the third-base line. Milone fielded it as the runner from third scored, and a second runner scored on the errant throw to first. Snider was tagged out after he slipped after rounding first.
Johnson led off the bottom of the seventh with his 11th homer of the season to extend the Blue Jays' lead to 6-4.
Toronto scored four runs in the eighth on a double by Snider, a sacrifice fly by Yan Gomes, and a double by Johnson against Sean Doolittle and a double by Jeff Mathis against Evan Scribner.
Notes: Attendance at Rogers Centre was 39,003..... Mathis will get most of the starts as catcher while J.P. Arencibia on the disabled list with a fractured right hand after taking a foul tip in Wednesday’s 16-0 Oakland win. Gomes, who started at first base on Thursday, will be backup. ...Toronto shortstop Yunel Escobar was out of the lineup for the second game in a row with lower back tightness. ..Carlos Villanueva (5-0, 2.86 ERA) will start against Detroit’s Rick Porcello (7-5, 4.40 ERA) on Friday in the opener of a three game series.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012