Blue Jays complete sweep of Tigers

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[August 31, 2015]  (The Sports Xchange) - Russell Martin has been on postseason teams before but the Toronto Blue Jays catcher said after a 9-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday that this team might be on the way to doing something really big.

"If this isn't the feel of a championship team, I don't know what is," said Martin, who hit a two-run homer. "I feel like we're great offensively, we're great on defense. We're pitching great, our bullpen has depth.

"I like what we have going. We have to just keep pushing and keep playing the way we play and I think we're going to do great things this year."

Edwin Encarnacion hit his fourth homer in two days and extended his hitting streak to a Major League-best 25 games as the Blue Jays improved their record to 21-5 for August.

Encarnacion, who hit three home runs and equaled the club record with nine RBIs on Saturday, went 2-for-3 and was hit by a pitch on Sunday.

Josh Donaldson and Kevin Pillar also homered on Sunday for the Blue Jays (74-56), who completed a three-game sweep of the Tigers (60-70).

Blue Jays left-hander Mark Buehrle (14-6) allowed five hits, two walks and two runs (one earned) in six-plus innings to earn the win.

Tigers right-hander Alfredo Simon (11-9) allowed six runs and four home runs among six hits in five innings to take the loss.

"We ran into the best offensive team in the league," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. "They were swinging the bats extremely well and we didn't pitch very well. That's not a good recipe.

"They can put up runs in a hurry and they did that against us for three straight days. ...You feel like you're always digging yourself out of a hole."

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Donaldson, the Blue Jays third baseman, hit his 36th homer of the season with one out in the first.

Encarnacion, the designated hitter, followed with his 30th of the season with two outs in the first. His hit streak tied him with third baseman Scott Rolen for the fourth longest in club history. Rolen's 25-game streak came in 2009.

"We're playing great baseball," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "That's pretty obvious. Everything's really clicking. Our offense is on fire, our pitching's been good, our defense has been great.

"It's all come together to this point."

(Compiled by Peter Rutherford)

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