Donaldson has five RBIs as Blue Jays rout Phillies

He’ll be the only left-handed reliever in the Blue Jays’ bullpen.

After sending Aaron Loup to Triple-A and DFA’ing Scott Diamond last night, the Blue Jays announced their corresponding moves this afternoon. 7 and 8 hitters in their order, each contributed two hits and two RBIs.

Encarnacion has been in full-flight for the Blue Jays this season, but his latest effort – a solo homer in the second inning of his side’s 7-2 win over the Phillies – got some serious air. Opening pitch is scheduled for 6:05 Central Time.

Stroman (6-2), who had a loss and two no-decisions in his three previous starts, allowed six hits, one walk and two runs. He has held opponents to five hits or fewer in 10 straight starts. He nonetheless said he thought the game was something of a struggle for the right-hander. He’s a big guy.

Overall, I am obviously sad about how this series went simply because nearly all of these games seemed winnable by the Orioles and the three losses were ones that just slipped out of their hands. This could be a great game for Happ should he get rolling early. “(Donaldson) made two great ones”. With Marco Estrada set to face Jeremy Hellickson in the pitching matchup, the over/under is sitting at 8 runs after the number opening at 8.5. It’s something I came into the season trying to be better at.

Estrada (4-2, 2.57) has been the Blue Jays’ best starting pitcher, just like he was in the 2015 postseason.

Encarnacion hit a 1-2 pitch off the facing of the second deck in left field for his 17th homer leading off the second.

“He went into attack mode and did a great job of getting the ball on the ground, which he does a good job of, and we were able to play pretty good defence behind him”. If you play long enough, (you know) the sound. The Jays smelled blood in the water and got another single and double before they could be contained, and the score was 4-1. The next two batters were walked and that was followed by a Josh Donaldson sacrifice fly, making it a 5-4 game.

Donaldson would finish the day going 3-for-4 with a walk, driving in five of the Toronto runs.

“No one wants to just be there, eating at-bats”, he said. “I don’t think we played with a lot of energy today”.

Hellickson has been average for the Phillies at home this season (2-1, 4.18 ERA, 1.330 WHIP, 9.5 K/9).

Donaldson opened the eighth by homering off reliever Hector Neris, Donaldson’s 16th of the season.

Pillar and Devon Travis rapped back-to-back singles.

“It was nice to win by seven runs for a change”, manager Pete Mackanin said.

It was a heck of a Major League Baseball initiation for Zach Eflin of the Philadelphia Phillies, and one he won’t soon forget – for all the wrong reasons.

Donaldson hit a grand slam while driving in five runs Tuesday as the Blue Jays blew out Philadelphia 11-3 in the second game of the four-game home-and-home interleague series between the squads.