Blue Jays avoid sweep with 7-2 over Tigers

The Blue Jays managed to avoid the series sweep, scoring 7 runs and seeing a strong outing from the bullpen, and winning 7-2 on Wednesday afternoon.

The Blue Jays sent R.A. Dickey to the mound against Jordan Zimmermann in the third and final game of the series in Detroit, with the Jays needing a win to avoid being swept. After a blow out in game one and a tight loss in the second, the Jays needed a big day great day on both sides of the ball, and they got just that.

Both teams got off to a hot start in the first inning with a two run homer from the streaking Justin Smoak, which was answered by Nick Castellanos in the bottom half, making it 2-2.

From that point on Dickey was mostly effective, holding the Tigers to just the two runs over 5.1 innings. He left having given up 9 hits and allowed one walk against one strikeout.

His counterpart Zimmerman wasn’t able to turn his outing around as effectively. After cruising through the 2nd, Josh Donaldson got to him again in the 3rd inning, hitting a three run blast for his 14th of the season and making it 5-2.

The Blue Jays put the icing on the cake in the 5th inning with triples from both Donaldson and Kevin Pillar, the latter of which drove in two runs. Donaldson was just a double shy of hitting for the cycle, but was unable to achieve the rare feat. Zimmerman wasn’t able to make it out of the 5th inning and was charged with 7 earned runs.

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Detroit threatened to rally in the 7th inning, but Jesse Chavez entered the game with one out and struck out James McCann and Austin Romine consecutively to strand a runner at third.

Drew Storen pitched a scoreless eighth inning around a walk, and Aaron Loup and Gavin Floyd combined to pitch the ninth and bring the game to a close.

The Blue Jays travel to Baltimore and open a series with the Orioles on Thursday, sending Marcus Stroman (5-2, 4.82) to the hill against Tyler Wilson (2-5, 4.39)

Additional game notes:

• Troy Tulowitzki is reportedly set to take part in extended spring training activities, and the team anticipates his return to the lineup on Monday when he comes off the DL. He has been sidelined with an injury to his quadriceps.
• The players gave their manager a win, on the 54th birthday for John Gibbons.
• R.A. Dickey commented after the game, “My knuckleball was garbage. I think the best pitch I had today was a pick off play to first”.