Blue Jays take 2nd in a row from Houston, win 7-2

The Blue Jays came into Saturdays contest fresh off a nice win on Friday against the AL West leading team the Houston Astros. The Jays sent out Drew Hutchison to the mound to try and secure the series win. The Astros hoping to split the first two games sent out the south paw Brett Oberholtzer.

Jose Altuve hit a one out single in the first inning but nothing came of it. Hutch was able to get a ground ball out and a strike out to avoid any damage from the hit.

Jose Bautista picked up a two out walk to get on base. Jose promptly stole 2nd base and was driven in by a bloop single by Edwin Encarnacion. The Blue Jays jump on the board in the 1st inning 1-0.

Danny Valencia led off the bottom of the 2nd inning with a double off the wall in center field. Dioner Navarro reached 1st base on a fielding error and Valencia advanced to 3rd. Kevin Pillar hit a single to center field scoring Valencia. Ryan Goins hit a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners and became the 1st out of the inning. Jose Reyes came up with two runners in scoring position and hit a single to left field scoring one run. Josh Donaldson picked up an RBI off of a sacrifice fly to right field. Kevin Pillar running hard on the play made it home in plenty of time. Jose Bautista reached base for the 2nd time today with a single to right field. With two out and two runners on Edwin Encarnacion walked to load up the bases. Chris Colabello flew out to left field to end the inning but the Jays picked up 3 more for a 4-0 lead.

In the top of the 3rd Marwin Gonzalez and Jonathan Villar hit back to back singles to lead off. George Springer hit into a double play. With two outs Jose Altuve hit a broken bat single to score Marwin Gonzalez. Jose Altuve was caught trying to steal 2nd base to end the inning.

Dioner Navarro hit a bloop single into no mans land in shallow right field with one out. Kevin Pillar advanced the runner on a ground ball out to 1st base. Ryan Goins popped up to end the inning stranding the runner on 2nd base.

Jose Reyes led off the 4th inning with a walk. With one out Jose Reyes stole 2nd base despite a pick off play being called. With pure speed he made it into 2nd base before the ball could get there. Without waiting very long Jose continued on to steal 3rd base. Jose Bautista struck out looking. The Astros bought in a new pitcher Jake Buchanan who was able to strike out Edwin Encarnacion.

Chris Colabello led off the 5th inning with a ground rule double. Danny Valencia put down a sacrifice to the pitcher and advanced Colabello to 3rd base. Dioner Navarro drew a one out walk. Kevin Pillar belted a double down the left field line to score Colabello pushing the lead to 5-1.

Josh Donaldson started out the 6th inning being plunked by Jake Buchanan. Donaldson quickly nabbed 2nd base with his 3rd stolen base of the season. Unfortunatly he was stranded there after Buchanan was able to retire the next 3 batters.

In the top of the 7th Evan Gattis hit a one out single. That marked the end of the day for Drew Hutchison. Aaron Loup came into the game to face Chris Carter and stuck him out.

Jonathan Villar hit his first home run of the season off of Steve Delabar in the 8th inning. The solo home run cut the lead down to 5-2.

Jose Reyes hit a one out single to center field in the bottom of the 8th. Reyes quickly stole 2nd base for his 3rd of the game. Jose Bautista drew another walk to put two runners on base with two outs. Edwin Encarnacion felt some discomfort in his shoulder and was removed from the game. Justin Smoak came in to pinch hit and drove in both runners with a double to right field.

Brett Cecil came into the 9th and closed out the game in a non save situation.

Game Notes:

• Chris Colabello started the game at 1st base for the 2nd time this season. He played fairly well despite looking a little out of sorts at the corner. He even turned a nice double play in the 3rd inning.
• Josh Donaldson picked up with 40th RBI of the season. This ties him with Nolan Arenado for tops of all 3rd basemen in the Majors.
• Again with Josh Donaldson, his defense was on display today with a couple nice hot line drive grabs. He made a couple nice throws over the first base. He is looking like an early candidate for MVP.
• This is a great trend for the Blue Jays pitchers. They seem to be putting out quality starts left and right. Today Drew Hutchison picked up his 5th of the season.
• The Blue Jays were able to flash some speed today picking up 5 total stolen bases. Most of those came from Jose Reyes but this speed will only make pitchers over think situations.
• Jose Bautista picked up 2 more walks putting him at 40 for the season. That mark is good enough for 4th in all of the Majors.

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