Blue Jays bats stay hot in convincing win over Phillies

The Blue Jays bats provided a top-to-bottom effort on Wednesday night as Toronto topped the Philadelphia Phillies 7-2 on the road.

Edwin Encarnacion launched his 17th home run of the season to get the Blue Jays on the board in the top of the second. Josh Donaldson didn’t want to fall too far behind in the home run race, though, hitting his 16th.

The bulk of Toronto’s run production actually came from their middle infield. Ryan Goins tripled and drove in two while Devon Travis was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada provided his team with another quality outing, allowing two earned runs on just four hits over six and two-thirds innings. Estrada struck out five batters and walked just one on 104 pitches.

Jesse Chavez struck out his lone batter then handed off to the recently-recalled lefty Chad Girodo, who worked a scoreless eighth inning.

Drew Storen handled the ninth inning, allowing a pair of base-runners before striking our Maikel Franco to end the game.

Left-fielder Michael Saunders was held out with a minor hamstring injury but said prior to the game that he expects to return tomorrow for the series finale. Ezequiel Carrera started in Saunders’ place, going 1-for-3 with a walk and batting leadoff ahead of Jose Bautista.

Russell Martin got things done the hard way, having two pitches hit him. He also drove in a run on sac fly to left, extending his streak of games with an RBI to six.

The fourth and final game of the split series goes tomorrow with J.A. Happ scheduled to face Phillies cornerstone Aaron Nola.