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 With first baseman Chris Colabello hitting a two-run homer in the
fourth inning and right-hander R.A. Dickey pitching seven shutout
innings, the Blue Jays defeated the Royals 5-2 in a game that had a
bench-clearing incident.
It was an important series for the Blue Jays, who added five players
before Friday's deadline for trades without waivers.
The Blue Jays (54-52) completed the four-game series with the Royals
(62-42) with three wins to move to 4-2 after the first six games of
a 10-game home stand.
"Obviously we want to put ourselves in a position where we know we
can compete with the best teams in the league and outplay them,"
Colabello said.
The pushing and shoving came with two outs in the top of the eighth
when the benches cleared after Blue Jays right-handed reliever Aaron
Sanchez was ejected after hitting shortstop Alcides Escobar with a
pitch.
The teams had been warned in the first inning by plate umpire Jim
Wolf after Royals right-hander Edinson Volquez hit third baseman
Josh Donaldson with a pitch. There was no ejection when Royals
right-handed reliever Ryan Madson hit shortstop Troy Tulowitzki with
a pitch but Sanchez was not so fortunate.
"Obviously I knew what the situation was going into the inning,"
Sanchez said. "My job was to go out there and get a clean inning.
Obviously it wasn't intentional. The last thing I'm trying to do is
put a runner on in the top of the eighth with the meat of the order
coming in. If I wanted to send a message, I would have sent a
message to the big guys."
Left fielder Ben Zobrist followed with his ninth home run of the
season, and third of the series, against right-hander Roberto Osuna
to cut the lead to 3-2.
The Blue Jays scored twice in the bottom of the inning.
Dickey (6-10), the Blue Jays knuckleballer who was starting on three
days' rest, allowed two hits and two walks while striking out six.
Osuna picked up his seventh save.
"None of them were intentional on our part," Royals manager Ned Yost
said of the hit batsmen. "It's part of the game.
"These guys are as good an offensive team as you're going to face
and they've got tremendous power, but they all dive in to the plate,
which makes them susceptible to getting hit on inside pitches. If
you continue to throw them away, away, away, away, you're going to
get hammered ....You have to utilize the inside part of the plate to
open up the outside part of the plate and it happens."
Volquez (10-6) allowed four hits, three walks and two runs in six
innings.
Donaldson felt that Volquez hit him intentionally in the first.
"I've been thrown at several times in my career, I know when it's
intentional," Donaldson said. "When a ball is thrown right at you,
you know right off the hand if it's intentional or not. With that
being said I could care less the fact that he hit me. I just think
there were some things that went along in the game that were
mismanaged very poorly.
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"Jim Wolf, I have a lot of respect for him, behind the plate. I
don't think he made a lot of the right decisions today. That's what
you end up getting out of it, games like that. You get
bench-clearing when it never even had to go that route."
"He's a little baby," Volquez said. "He was crying like a baby. We
don't play that game. We've got one of the best bullpens in
baseball. We've been in that situation many times. They know how to
get out of there. I have to pitch to both sides of the plate."
The Blue Jays increased their lead to 3-0 in the seventh after
second baseman Ryan Goins led off with a single against left-handed
reliever Franklin Morales. Left fielder Ben Revere sacrificed Goins
to second. Madson came in and hit Tulowitzki on the forearm with a
pitch.
When a 2-2 pitch came close to Donaldson, he became upset. Blue Jays
manager John Gibbons intervened and was ejected.
Donaldson struck out and right fielder Jose Bautista drove in a run
with a double.
The Blue Jays regained their three-run lead in the home eighth.
Right-hander Kelvin Herrera walked first baseman Justin Smoak, a
defensive replacement, and catcher Russell Martin. Smoak tagged up
and took third when center fielder Kevin Pillar fouled out to
second. Goins walked to load the bases. Revere hit a sacrifice fly
and Tulowitzki singled to right to score another run.
NOTES: LHP David Price (9-4, 2.53 ERA) will make his Blue Jays debut
against the Minnesota Twins on Monday afternoon at Rogers Centre.
Price was acquired Thursday from the Detroit Tigers and was on
schedule to pitch Sunday, but he missed a between-starts throwing
session so he was backed off a day. The Twins will start RHP Ervin
Santana (2-1, 3.78 ERA) in the opener of the four-game series
between wild-card contenders. ... LF Ben Rivera, who batted leadoff
in his Blue Jays' debut Saturday, hit ninth Sunday with the return
to the lineup of SS Troy Tulowitzki, who has batted first since his
acquisition from the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday. Tulowitzki was
used only to pinch hit Saturday. ... The Royals have Monday off,
then will start LHP Danny Duffy (4-5, 4.28 ERA) Tuesday at Detroit
against Tigers RHP Justin Verlander (1-3, 4.86 ERA) to open a
three-game series.
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