Happ, three homers help Blue Jays win

“You can get some confidence, for sure”, Diamondbacks closer Brad Ziegler told the Arizona Republic. I think fastball command was a little off, but we finished up well.

Yasmany Tomas and Peter O’Brien both hit home runs as the Diamondbacks (34-39) won their fifth game in a row. This will also be the first time they have played each other since 2013, and the first time the Diamondbacks have been in Toronto to play the Blue Jays since 2004.

“I like the way he looks”, manager John Gibbon said of Tulowitzki, who returned from the 15-day disabled list on June 18. “We had guys on base, could not cash anyone in”.

Case in point on Wednesday, when the trio provided all of the Jays’ offence in the club’s plodding, 5-2 victory over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks in front of a sold-out crowd of 46,967.

The Orioles entered Sunday’s matchup with the Blue Jays in control of the AL East without superstar Manny Machado, who began serving his four game suspension. “It kind of feels like going to play the wild-card game”, Showalter said.

Estrada struck out eight over six innings and gave up three runs on two hits and three walks in Toronto’s 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. JA Happ (8-3 with a 3.41 ERA) goes to the mound for the Blue Jays facing Robbie Ray (4-5 with a 4.44 ERA) for the D-Backs.

Arizona catcher Welington Castillo has four career home runs against Estrada. He is also (4-1, 4.63 ERA, 1.343 WHIP, 5.1 K/9) at home in the Rogers Centre in 2016.

But after giving up the first-inning home run to Martin, the second-year left-hander settled down and might have fared better had his team not stranded nine runners.

The first game of the series will match up Patrick Corbin and Marco Estrada.

The Diamondbacks got right-hander Shelby Miller back from a sprained finger on Monday and he picked up the win in Philadelphia.

“I’m good”, Pillar said. “I was trying to pitch through it”. “I don’t have any issues in my swing right now”. They are in third place, three games behind the division-leading Orioles.

Aside from the Estrada performance, Kevin Pillar made another one of his highlight-reel catches, bringing fans to their feet in a show of appreciation and his teammates to the top of the dugout to congratulate him when the top of the fourth inning ended.

A day after seeing his 13-game hitting streak end, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt went 2 for 2 with two walks. “We lost, so there’s really nothing to cheer for”. “We’re hitting, we’re pitching. He said he felt great, and I said we want to keep you that way”, manager Buck Showalter said.

“(Specialists) treat a lot of football players with similar injuries and they all vary on how quick they come back”. Not his best start, but if this is as bad as it gets it’s a pretty easy life for Estrada, all things considered.

Estrada is obviously proud of the record, but he was in no mood to be jumping around in celebration after the Blue Jays went down in defeat the way they did. This past week, Gonzalez collected one RBI, which is almost impossible for a player who bats in the middle of the lineup and totaled 29 at-bats, but that’s where we are with the 34-year-old.