The Toronto Blue Jays scored five second-inning runs against Sandy Alcantara and defeated the host Miami Marlins 6-3 on Wednesday afternoon.
Alcantara, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, allowed 10 hits and five runs in seven innings. He is now 2-6 with a 5.08 ERA.
Toronto was led by George Springer, who went 2-for-5 with two RBIs, and Matt Chapman, who slugged his 10th homer of the season.
Jays starter Kevin Gausman (7-3) improved to 4-1 in his career against the Marlins. He allowed eight hits and three runs in six innings.
Closer Jordan Romano pitched around minor trouble in the ninth inning to earn his MLB-leading 22nd save of the season.
Miami’s Luis Arraez went 2-for-5. He leads the majors with a .398 batting average.
Toronto batted around in the second, smashing six hits and plating five runs off Alcantara. Chapman led off the inning with a hustle double to left-center. Cavan Biggio’s double to right put Toronto on the board. Kevin Kiermaier’s single to center made it 2-0.
Then, with the infield drawn in, the Jays doubled their lead on Springer’s chopper over the head of third baseman Garrett Hampson for a two-run single. Kiermaier, who was the second runner to score on Springer’s hit, just got his left hand on the plate before the tag.
Whit Merrifield’s RBI single capped the rally.
Miami got its first runs in the fourth as Bryan De La Cruz hit a leadoff single and advanced on Jesus Sanchez’s double off the wall. Both runners scored when Garrett Cooper’s drive to the warning track went off the glove of left fielder Merrifield. Cooper, who was given a double on the play, was stranded as Gausman got a flyout, groundout and a strikeout, working around a walk.
The Marlins cut their deficit to 5-3 in the seventh on a rally that started with Jonathan Davis’ single and Jacob Stallings’ hit-by-pitch. Hampson earned the RBI with an opposite-field single to right. But Arraez hit into a crucial double play, hurting Miami’s momentum.
Chapman homered in the eighth to extend Toronto’s lead to 6-3. Chapman’s shot to left went 415 feet.
–Field Level Media
