Blue Jays’ offence no match for Carrasco as Indians continue to roll

Carlos Carrasco was lights out on the mound striking out 14 batters and the Cleveland Indians defeated the Toronto Blue Jays for their 13th straight win.

TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays have had themselves quite a month at the plate, but their offence looked overmatched against Carlos Carrasco Thursday.

The right-hander struck out 14 over 7.1 exceptional innings while allowing just three hits as the Cleveland Indians won 4-1 to extend their winning streak to 13 games.

“It was Carrasco’s night,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “He just had everything going and really just shut us down. You tip your hat to him, he was that good.”

It’s easy to see why the Blue Jays pursued Carrasco at last year’s trade deadline. Of course Cleveland held onto the 29-year-old, who’s now a major contributor in the American League’s best rotation.

“In the moment of competition you want him to fall on his face,” said Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey. “You’re not really admiring what’s going on. But yeah, in retrospect of course you do. A guy who punches out 14? Especially of our hitters.”

With the loss, the Blue Jays finish the first half of the season 43-38 — a respectable record they’ll need to improve upon to repeat as AL East champions.

Dickey pitched well, holding the Indians to three earned runs on eight hits over seven innings. He walked one while striking out four, lowering his ERA to 4.21 in the process. He’s again on track for 200 innings again having surpassed 100 by mid-season.

Yet run support continues to elude Dickey, whose teammates average just 3.2 runs per game when he starts. “He pitched good enough to win, but on a night like tonight when you’re not scoring any runs it’s awful tough,” Gibbons said. Determined to stay positive, the knuckleballer has a notecard in his locker on which the words ‘no negativity allowed’ are printed.

The biggest hits against Dickey were solo home runs from Rajai Davis and Jason Kipnis. Otherwise, there was plenty of weak contact against the 41-year-old, who now has a 3.32 ERA since the end of April.

“There’s a lot of reason for optimism as far as I’m concerned with my personal growth throughout the year,” Dickey said.

There wasn’t much in the way of offence for the 41,365 fans at Rogers Centre. Josh Donaldson hit a fourth-inning home run all the way to the centre field flight deck, his 19th of a season that’s been just as productive as his 2015 MVP campaign. His defensive skills were also on display, as he added a sliding catch in foul territory to end the first inning.

But beyond Donaldson’s homer, the Blue Jays managed nothing against Carrasco and company. An eighth-inning rally ended with two on base when Bryan Shaw struck out Devon Travis, then closer Cody Allen retired all three hitters he faced for his 16th save.

At least Brett Cecil’s return from the disabled list can be considered a positive for the Blue Jays. Hours after officially rejoining the big league roster, Cecil made his first appearance in six weeks, recording a three-up, three-down inning that included a strikeout of Francisco Lindor.

“He’s big going down the road here,” Gibbons said. “We’re going to need him. If there was one good thing you liked tonight it was him.”

The adrenaline Cecil felt while warming up in the bullpen didn’t prevent him from pitching with command.

“I was glad to be able to harness it,” he said. “You want a little bit of it going into each game, but it’s just a matter of whether you can control yourself during the game. I was able to do that tonight and hit my spots.”

Cecil, who had been sidelined with a torn lat, will be used in high-leverage spots from here on. He won’t be limited to a specific inning, but “it’s going to be important stuff,” as Gibbons put it.

While the Blue Jays are surely glad to see the last of Carrasco for a while, the Indians’ starting staff has no weak spots. Josh Tomlin starts Friday, followed by Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber, a former Cy Young winner who has the highest ERA in the rotation at 3.50.

“Their staff is good,” Dickey said. “You know you’re going to have your hands full when a staff like that comes through.”

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