The Toronto Blue Jays will try to carry their power surge into Wednesday afternoon for the rubber match of their three-game series with the visiting Miami Marlins.
Toronto used three home runs — including the first career grand slam by former Marlin Jesus Sanchez — to take the second game of the series 8-1 on Tuesday.
Eight also was more than enough for the Marlins on Monday when they won the opener 8-2.
Ernie Clement and Yohendrick Pinango added solo shot on Tuesday for the Blue Jays, who had lost two in a row before snapping Miami’s season-best four-game winning streak.
Clement extended his hit streak to nine games with the homer, his second of the series. He is 12-for-31 (.387) on the streak with four doubles, three home runs and eight RBIs.
Kevin Gausman (4-3, 3.23 ERA) is the expected Toronto starter on Wednesday. The right-hander is 4-2 with a 2.47 ERA in nine career games (eight starts) against Miami.
The Marlins are scheduled to start right-hander Eury Perez (3-6, 4.91). He is 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA in two career starts against Toronto.
The Marlins hope Perez has a better outing than Sandy Alcantara, who allowed season highs in runs (eight) and hits (10) that included three home runs in 5 2/3 innings on Tuesday.
Alcantara set a career high by hitting four batters with pitches, which had the crowd booing. The four batters were hit by off-speed pitches, sliders or changeups.
“Knowing Sandy, he’s not that type of pitcher,” Sanchez said. “He’s not going to try to hurt anyone, not going to try to go after you like that.”
Two of the hit batters came in Toronto’s six-run sixth inning. There was some doubt if Lenyn Sosa could continue after being hit on the hand by a slider in the sixth. He continued after a trainer tended to him. Sosa was playing first base for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who missed his second straight game after being hit by a pitch on the right elbow on Sunday.
If Sosa came out of the game, the Blue Jays would have had to do some juggling, possibly even using Guerrero as a last resort.
“(Guerrero) hit today,” Toronto manager John Schneider said before the game. “He’s a little better. He’s still pretty sore when he’s extending, so we’ll see how he is as the day goes on and into tomorrow.”
While Alcantara made most of his own bad luck, he caught a tough break during the sixth when George Springer lined an RBI single that deflected off the glove of shortstop Otto Lopez.
“We just couldn’t find a way to finish that inning,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “I’m sure the (Lopez) play he makes often, and just wasn’t able to there. We weren’t able to stop the bleeding and they were able to put up a big number.”
Defense also was a factor in Miami’s win in the opener. Pinango misplayed two balls into costly doubles in left field.
“A learning moment, for sure,” Schneider said. “He’s working on it. He’s been working on his outfield, and he works on it every day. It’s give-and-take at times. At the plate, he’s been more than fine. You’ve got to play the whole game.”
He caught everything he should have in left field on Tuesday and also hit a home run to atone for his bad game.
–Field Level Media
