Historic Win for Aaron Sanchez and the Blue Jays

Aaron Sanchez and Edison Volquez battled it out for seven innings giving the batters on both sides very little to work with.  However, the Jay’s couldn’t be held back for long, and broke out in the seventh, jumping all over the Kansas City Royals.

Aaron Sanchez has improved to 9-1 with this win, which places him at the top of Toronto Blue Jays franchise history in terms of win percentage before the All Star Break.  He now leads a very impressive list followed by David Wells, Roy Halladay and Juan Guzman.

In the seventh, Edison Volquez lost control of his pitches and walked Russell Martin.  Volquez followed that up with a single to Troy Tulowitzki and a then he was knocked out of the game when he loaded the bases by hitting Kevin Pillar with an inside fastball.

With the bases loaded, Luke Hochevar entered in relief of Volquez and allowed all of the inherited runners to score.  Hochevar walked Devon Travis and, allowing one run to score, then Darwin Barney got a two-run single to close the books on Volquez.  Ezequiel Carrera bunted  Travis and Barney both into  scoring position and a two-run single by Josh Donaldson brought Travis and Barney across the plate.  All in all, it was a five-run seventh inning.

Aaron Sanchez pitched a wipe-out of a game, allowing only one run to score, and that run came on a home run in the seventh off of the hot hitting Kendrys Morales.  Sanchez allowed only three hits and one walk in his eight complete innings and struck out three batters.

Troy Tulowitzki went two for three with two singles and a walk.  Darwin Barney had a fantastic game filling in for Josh Donaldson over at third base.  Barney made several standout defensive plays.  Kevin Pillar also had several standout defensive plays in centre field making the diving catches that fans have grown used to seeing him make.

Next up R.A. Dickey (5-9 with a 4.21 ERA) and the Jays face Chris Young of the Royals  (2-7 with a 6.24 ERA) on Tuesday, July 5th at 7:07 pm.