Donaldson hits grand slam, Blue Jays rout Phillies 11-3

The Phillies are 10-28 in games where they allow one or more home runs.

“I think I knew that when my fastball wasn’t kind of drifting off the plate a little bit and I knew that I had to get a pitch to get ’em off”, Eickhoff said of his thought process.

“It would just come and go from inning to inning”, said Stroman. “I was obviously leaving some pitches up and big league hitters are going to capitalize on that, but I was out there in front of 50,000 (47,006) people playing the game that I love”.

Eflin began his outing by fanning Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista.

Manager Pete Mackanin said he was unsure of Velasquez’s next step. “He looked like he was right on the money, but he just didn’t make quality pitches after that”.

Martin walked with one out in the third and Carrera hit his second homer of the season.

Edwin Encarnacion belted his 16th home run of the season in the seventh inning, a two-run poke that completed the Toronto scoring on the day.

Encarnacion’s two RBIs gave him a major league-best 56, one more than Boston’s David Ortiz. Stroman retired the first eight Philadelphia batters he saw, and it took an infield hit by Peter Bourjos with two out in the third for the visitors to get on base.

Marcus Stroman (6-2) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings to win for the first time in four starts. “It wasn’t the prettiest game by my personal standards, but anytime we can put up zeros and keep us in the game, that’s my job, and I was really happy to do that”, Eickhoff said.

Stroman generated 11 outs on the ground and struck out six, a product both of the sinker and a much crisper slider, with more downward action rather than plain-to-plain movement.

“He located his pitches down in the strike zone very well”, Mackanin said.

The Phillies broke out for seven runs in Monday’s shutout win over the Blue Jays, their MLB-leading eighth shutout of the season but first since May 22.

He described himself as day-to-day, but after the game the Blue Jays optioned Aaron Loup to triple-A Buffalo and designated Scott Diamond for assignment, with two corresponding moves to come before the first of two under National League rules in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

For Wednesday’s game, the Blue Jays will be bringing out right-hander Marco Estrada. Third baseman Maikel Franco missed the two games in Toronto and is listed as day-to-day with a mild right knee sprain. The two teams will play on Wednesday and Thursday in Philadelphia.

Hernandez hit his second home run of the season with two out in the seventh. Left fielder Michael Saunders was replaced by pinch-hitter Darwin Barney for what would have been his second at-bat of the six-run third inning. Bautista was at DH for the second straight game after missing the previous three with a sore right thigh.

Just as Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson (4-4, 4.34 ERA) is no stranger to the Blue Jays from pitching with Tampa Bay. Cecil, who last pitched May 14, is 0-5 with a 5.23 ERA. The Blue Jays are 17-8 in Stroman’s last 25 starts, are 9-3 in his last 12 outings coming off four days of rest, and are 7-2 in his last nine starts versus an opponent with a losing record so Toronto should roll this afternoon.

In 2015, his first season in the Phillies’ system, Eflin went 8-6 with a 3.69 ERA and 1.21 WHIP in 23 starts.