Estrada’s gem leads Blue Jays past Mariners 3-2

After a frustrating weekend in Anaheim, where the Blue Jays lost the final two poorly-played games against the Angels, Estrada stepped up in a big way in the opener of a three-game series against the Mariners.

The Seattle Mariners opened the biggest home series of the season with a handful of near misses that now have them three games behind in the AL wild-card chase. Seth Smith just got a piece of a full count pitch to prolong his at-bat. So, I’m backing Seattle at home with the slight plus money. But Marco stepped up and that reminded me of the playoff game against Kansas City a year ago. The Blue Jays named longtime executive Paul Beeston the organization’s president emeritus. “It gave us a lot of energy in the dugout”.

Using a sinking changeup and effective curveball to offset a fastball that has been reduced to 88 to 89 miles per hour, Estrada kept Mariners’ hitters off balance, following a similar pattern that Astros pitchers used in two wins over Seattle during the weekend.

The drama was just beginning. Pillar had two singles, two stolen bases, an RBI and a run scored in his first two at-bats.Estrada pitched five innings of no-hit baseball to open the game.Estrada retired the first 11 batters before issuing a two-out walk to Cano in the fourth inning, ending his bid for a ideal game. Aoki tried to end it with a two-strike bunt, but the ball rolled foul for a strikeout.

The Mariners didn’t get their first hit until Robinson Cano’s leadoff single in the seventh inning on a hard grounder back through the box and into center field.

Down 3-0 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Leonys Martin gave the Mariners’ their first runs of the game and momentary hope. Suddenly it was white knuckle time. Osuna slammed the door shut on the next batter, however, striking out Ben Gamel to secure the win and his 34th save.

Edwin Encarnacion’s 41st home run of the year, a two-run shot in the top of the third provided Toronto’s first two runs. Pillar added a two-out RBI single in the fourth inning after Troy Tulowitzki led off with a double.

Then there was manager John Gibbons decision to stick with Marco Estrada to start the eighth, even though he had his eighth inning guy, Jason Grilli, warming up ready to go.

Whatever Walker was throwing, Encarnacion seemed to like it.

Walker, who has dealt with a foot issue for most of the second-half of the season, took a line drive from Encarnacion off his right biceps in the first inning but remained in the game.

It struck Walker on the fleshy part of the palm on his pitching hand and somehow, he avoided injury.

Walker retired the next two hitters, but Encarnacion crushed an 0-1 fastball splitter for a no-doubt homer to left. Grilli gave way to Roberto Osuna after recording two outs, and the young closer walked a fine line in the ninth.

Meanwhile, Estrada was painting.

The Jays stole four bases in the contest, a season high and the first time they swiped that many in a game since September 8, 2015 at Boston. He was dotting the corners of the plate with his fastball and keeping the Mariners from zeroing in on that 88-mph heater with strategic use of his curve, his cutter and especially the changeup. “It happens”, Servais said.

“I’m not really sure what’s been going on, as the game gets going I start to struggle a little bit”, Estrada said. We’ve looked at video and there have been little things that we caught and we’ve changed it up. “I kind of just stayed within myself and try to make pitches and get outs”.

J.A. Happ never had come close to winning 20 games during a major-league career that began in 2007.

“Russ (Martin) called a heckuva game and the defence was incredible”, said Estrada.

In the seventh inning, after Devon Travis had singled to lead off (extending his hit streak to 16 games in the process), Donaldson was ejected from the game after home plate ump Chris Conroy called him out on strikes. Donaldson immediately got in Conroy’s face and was quickly tossed.

While Estrada was toying with the Mariners’ lineup, his teammates didn’t exactly break out of a prolonged, team-wide hitting slump, but did produce all their runs with two out. We swung at pitches out of the zone.