TORONTO — Colby Rasmus was torn as he watched teammate Edwin Encarnacion seal the Toronto Blue Jays’ 9-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves with a three-run blast in the seventh inning off his brother Cory, and even more conflicted as he stepped into the batter’s box against his younger sibling.
“It was a strange feeling, a lot of emotions going on,” the Blue Jays centre-fielder explained Monday. “It was awesome and terrible at the same time.”
The encounter ended with a double to left field by Colby — “he happened to get a fastball away and hit it that way, for a change … that was a good piece of hitting by him,” said Cory — providing a memorable footnote to the latest Blue Jays interleague triumph.
The brother-vs.-brother matchup in the big-leagues was the first since Jared and Jeff Weaver each retired the other on June 13, 2010.
“It was still awesome,” Cory said despite his rough outing. “The fact that we lost — the outcome is the most important part. But me facing him was a lot of fun. It just sucks that he got a hit.”
Cory was making his second big-league appearance since being called up last week, and allowed a double to Melky Cabrera, a walk to Jose Bautista before Encarnacion capped a five RBI night with his 14th homer.
In the Blue Jays dugout, Colby both liked and hated what he saw.
“I’m not going to lie, definitely my gut wrenched up a little bit,” he explained. “But that’s the game.”
The Rasmuses didn’t acknowledge each other on the field, although at least one of their two other brothers didn’t enjoy the matchup.
Casey Rasmus tweeted “Ok Cory can’t face Colby this inning” when the frame began and later added “I think I’m gonna throw up” as Encarnacion hit a three-run homer and the family matchup neared.
“Honestly I wasn’t even looking at him,” said Cory. “I was just saying, let’s get some people out. Let’s get out of here.”
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CHANGING TRENDS: The Blue Jays have been reversing their longstanding struggles in interleague play this season, making up some of the ground their early struggles have cost them by beating up on the Senior Circuit.
After sweeping a two-game mini-series from the World Series champion San Francisco Giants by a cumulative score of 21-9 earlier this month, they laid a beating on the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. Colby Rasmus, J.P. Arencibia and Edwin Encarnacion went deep.
“We think we have a good team, those three games we played good baseball,” said manager John Gibbons. “We really swung the bats in all three games. Those guys are world champs, and these guys are in first place for a reason, they’re both good teams, it was just our night all three of those games.”
Mark Buehrle picked up his first win since Apr. 15 by throwing six innings of one-run ball, allowing just five hits and two walks while striking out six. The left-hander, delivering a fourth straight solid outing after a slower start, was never really in trouble, pinning the Braves down while the offence did damage.
His recent gains have come with better downward movement on his changeup and sinker.
“When you throw that soft it gives it a little bit more time to move down,” said Buehrle. “But everything has been down in the zone, so when you’re down in the zone, pretty much the only thing they can do with it is hit it down. It’s always good when I’m getting ground balls instead of fly balls — I’ll take fly-ball outs but when they’re hitting the ball on the ground, that’s my game.”
Rasmus got things started on the right foot with a two-run blast off Tim Hudson in the second, Encarnacion’s two-run single in the third opened things up while Arencibia’s two-run blast sixth put the game out of reach at 6-1.
Encarnacion pushed his home run count to 14 and his RBI total to 43 with his shot in the seventh, near the major-league lead in both categories. He’s quickly proving his breakout 2012 was legitimate.
“That’s the question everyone has been asking and I got the best way to answer, is the way I’ve been playing right now,” he said. “I’m going to have another great year, so they can see it’s nothing lucky. I believe in myself, I feel a lot of confidence and I know what I got.”
The Blue Jays haven’t had a winning season in interleague play since 2007, and are now 42-51 since then.
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WHERE THINGS STAND: The Blue Jays (22-29) won for the ninth time in 14 games before a Rogers Centre gathering of 22,808 and look to win their fifth series of the season when Brandon Morrow starts against Paul Maholm and the Braves (30-20) on Tuesday afternoon.
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JJ vs GIANTS: Josh Johnson will make one more rehab start for triple-A Buffalo before returning to the Blue Jays rotation next week at San Francisco.
The big right-hander rejoined the team Monday to throw his side session under pitching coach Pete Walker’s watchful eye. He next pitches for the Bisons on Thursday, and his next turn would be next Tuesday, when the Blue Jays open up a two-game set at the Giants.
“Wish it was sooner, but they’re making me do one more,” he told Sportsnet’s Arash Madani.
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ROMERO ROCKED: After an outing with some promise his last time out, Ricky Romero failed to escape the first inning for triple-A Buffalo on Monday evening, allowing eight earned runs on five hits and three walks in two-thirds of an inning in an 11-7 loss at Durham.
In his previous start against Charlotte, Romero threw five shutout innings before walking four straight batters to open the sixth and getting pulled from the game. Through four starts with the Bisons, Romero has an ERA of 13.85 and has allowed 23 hits and 20 walks in 13 innings.
