Blue Jays at Phillies

Josh Donaldson hit two homers and drove in four runs as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5 on Tuesday night.

The Blue Jays star is 0.4 wins above replacement behind Mike Trout by the Baseball Reference formula and tied with the reigning American League MVP by Fangraphs’ calculation of WAR.

NEW YORK – Alex Rodriguez hit a grand slam with one out in the seventh inning as the New York Yankees rallied for a victory over Minnesota.

It was Josh Donaldson simply doing his thing like he has so often this season.

“I’m in a position in the lineup where I need to come through, and fortunately I’ve been able to do that, ” Donaldson said.

The Philadelphia Phillies have lost four of their last five home games. Nola will bring a 4.41 ERA, a 1.27 WHIP, and a 28/10 K/BB ratio over 34 2/3 innings into a road start versus the Marlins.

Hague leads the global League with a. 348 batting average, 83 runs batted in, a. 427 on-base percentage and 161 hits. A loud group of Jays fans chanted “MVP” as he rounded the bases. Starter R.A. Dickey did not retire a batter in the fifth and left with the bases full.

Donaldson, who went 3-for-4 in the game, put the Jays ahead to stay with a three-run shot off Philadelphia’s Jeanmar Gomez in Toronto’s five-run sixth inning. Liam Hendricks (4-0) pitched out of a jam in the fifth to earn the win. We got a scoreless inning from each of Brett Cecil, LaTroy Hawkins, Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna (getting his 14th save). Other than that I felt good. He also walked four, but limited the Jays to four hits while striking out five. He left with a 5-3 lead.

Nola, whose best out-pitch is a changeup, is facing Toronto for the first time but made his debut against an AL East squad on July 21, when he held Tampa Bay to one run in six frames. “They’re swinging the bats well”.

For the top of the 6th, reliever Elvis Araujo replaced Nola. Pinch hitter Chris Colabello singled home Revere.

“He’s had some kind of year”, Jays manager John Gibbons said of Donaldson. Freddy Galvis leads Philly with 108 hits and 31 RBI while Odubel Herrera and Ryan Howard have combined for 97 RBI. Francoeur grounded into a double play, again saving Toronto from big trouble.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies end their series Wednesday night.

Cesar Hernandez hit an RBI single with two outs in the bottom half to cut it to 3-2.

Six-time All-Star 2B Chase Utley isn’t so eager to play for a contender.

Little wonder then that a vocal contingent of Blue Jays loyalists among the crowd of 26,547 at Citizens Bank Park broke into “M-V-P M-V-P” each time he stepped to the plate. Outfielder Aaron Altherr has been called up to take his place on the roster. After that the plan is to have Hutchison return to the big-league club and start the August 29 game against the Detroit Tigers.

Phillies: Rookie 3B Maikel Franco was placed on the 15-day DL because of a broken left wrist. After so many games without much of a payoff, he doesn’t want to miss anything now.

In nine career starts against the Phils, Buehrle is 6-2 with a 3.50 ERA. Adam Morgan takes the hill, and he’s 3-4 with a 4.11 ERA and 26 strikeouts this season.