ATLANTA – The Toronto Blue Jays leave Atlanta with yet another series win thanks to reassuringly strong performances from two key players.
Marco Estrada shut the Braves down over eight scoreless innings and Edwin Encarnacion homered as the Blue Jays won 5-0 Thursday to win the series and complete a 6-4 road trip. The win gives the Blue Jays a 3.5-game lead over the New York Yankees, who had the night off.
“This team’s really good,” Estrada said. “We’ve got a great team, a team that can go pretty far, but we’ve just got to take it one game at a time and hopefully we get in. With this team our chances are pretty good.”
As recently as a few days ago, questions surrounded both Estrada and Encarnacion. Estrada had struggled to limit home runs of late, with 10 allowed in the six starts preceding Thursday’s outing. Considering that he set a career high in innings Saturday, there was no guarantee he’d be able to replicate his early-season success.
But the right-hander pitched well Thursday, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out four. He might not have cracked the Blue Jays’ opening day rotation, but he now ranks sixth in the American League with a 3.14 ERA.
“I felt really good today, actually,” Estrada said. “A few outings back I didn’t feel that great. My mechanics were a little off, rushing stuff. I talked to Pete (Walker), we got that stuff squared away and figured it out and it just came together today.”
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No one outing can assure Estrada of a spot in a potential playoff rotation, but he still has to be considered a legitimate option. Should Mark Buehrle or Marcus Stroman falter down the stretch, the Blue Jays could turn to Estrada. Just as importantly, the strong outing suggests he has plenty to offer in his three remaining regular-season starts.
From here on Estrada’s in unchartered territory, and while the Blue Jays will surely watch his workload, there’s little reason to coddle him if the results keep coming. He’s 32 and on the brink of free agency, not a prospect coming off of an arm injury. If the Blue Jays are anxious about his workload, they aren’t letting on.
“I’m not worried about that,” manager John Gibbons said.
At the plate, Encarnacion’s hot hitting continued. After sitting out two games with a sore finger, he hit three singles and drew two walks Wednesday. He mixed in some power Thursday, hitting his 33rd home run of the season to open the scoring. The homer gave him 100 runs batted in on the season and extended his streak of consecutive games reaching base to 44.
The Blue Jays now have three players with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI for the third time in franchise history: Encarnacion, Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson, who hit his 39th homer of the season to wrap up the scoring.
Light-hitting second baseman Cliff Pennington hit his second home of the week, a three-run shot on what appeared to be a hit and run. He wouldn’t mind seeing the trend continue.
“I hope we have to get used to it. That’d be nice,” he said. “I’m definitely not trying to hit homers, but I’ll take them if they come.”
Considering the first-rate defence Pennington offers, the Blue Jays have reason to be pleased with his production in place of the injured Troy Tulowitzki, who left the team to visit a specialist in Boston. Along with Ryan Goins, who singled twice Thursday, the Blue Jays are getting by just fine up the middle.
“This team does a great job of bringing it every day,” Pennington said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team that’s better at it. That’s all you’ve got to do. You can’t worry about tomorrow, you can’t worry about yesterday.”
It adds up to a successful road trip for the Blue Jays. Not only did they finish with another win, but Encarnacion and Estrada answered major questions in the process.