{"id":60673,"date":"2015-09-03T12:22:18","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T04:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=60673"},"modified":"2016-05-31T10:17:31","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T14:17:31","slug":"donaldson-dickey-shine-as-blue-jays-continue-torrid-run-with-win-over-indians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/09\/03\/donaldson-dickey-shine-as-blue-jays-continue-torrid-run-with-win-over-indians\/","title":{"rendered":"Donaldson, Dickey shine as Blue Jays continue torrid run with win over Indians"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Donaldson,<\/a>
Donaldson, after hitting a home run while playing for Toronto Blue Jays (Wikipedia photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2013 Even in an MVP-calibre season, Josh Donaldson finds new ways to impress.<\/p>\n

The Toronto third baseman drove in a run in the first inning and two in the second, upping his MLB-leading RBI total to 111 in the Blue Jays\u2019 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday. He also showed off his hustle and athleticism, diving though the air to evade catcher Yan Gomes’ tag and score on a shallow sacrifice fly ball by Troy Tulowitzki in the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gotten to the point where nothing this guy does surprises you any more. I mean he\u2019s a super-hero, really,\u201d said Jays starter R.A. Dickey, who threw a complete-game four-hitter. \u201cHe is in a special place right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s on a mission,\u201d echoed Toronto manager John Gibbons.<\/p>\n

Donaldson played down his second-inning heroics, saying he just saw the opportunity with second baseman Jason Kipnis back-peddling to get to the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I took it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With the sellout crowd chanting M-V-P, Donaldson singled, doubled and doubled before Cleveland finally induced him to ground out in the seventh inning. And Donaldson made that play close at the bag.<\/p>\n

In the third, he challenged Indians left-fielder Michael Brantley and won, turning a single into a double.<\/p>\n

It was Donaldson\u2019s 48th multi-hit game and 14th three-hit game this season. His RBI total is the most by a Blue Jay since Jose Bautista\u2019s 124 in 2010.<\/p>\n

The surging Jays (76-57) have won 10 of their last 12 and are 31-11 since the all-star break. They are 33-13 in their last 46 home games.<\/p>\n

Still, the New York Yankees defeated Boston 13-8 earlier in the day to remain 1.5 games back of the Jays in the American League East.<\/p>\n

Dickey (10-10) retired the Indians in order in seven of his nine innings, dispatching 14 straight batters at one point for his 99th career win and 15th complete game.<\/p>\n

\u201cDickey was so good… He just threw a lot of strikes,\u201d said Cleveland manager Terry Francona. \u201cFirst time through you saw him show the fastball and then go to the knuckleball. Once he got it rolling, man, for a ball to move that much and for him to command it that well, it was really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto continued its onslaught on opposition pitching, leading 5-0 after two innings with the Rogers Centre roof open on a sticky September night before 46,538 \u2013 the 15th sellout of the season. Cleveland was certainly sweating, using four pitchers in the first four innings.<\/p>\n

Dickey, meanwhile, shut the door on Cleveland as the Indians (64-68) lost their second straight after a six-game win streak. The 40-year-old knuckleballer retired Cleveland’s first nine batters.<\/p>\n

Dickey is the first Toronto pitcher to go 7-0 after the all-star break since Roger Clemens in 1998.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what\u2019s worked is the bats have exploded when I pitch,\u201d Dickey said with a chuckle. \u201cAnd that\u2019s always nice, to pitch with a lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a gift to get to come and watch these guys play. It really is \u2013 to watch Donaldson and Bautista and Tulo (Tulowitzki). Everybody is playing a part and it’s really a rare gift to get to come to the park and see these guys perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tulowitzki drove in Toronto\u2019s other two runs.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s Edwin Encarnacion, who had his 26-game hitting streak snapped Tuesday, had a walk in four at-bats to extend his on-base streak to 33 games.<\/p>\n

Toronto showed its teeth early, scoring twice in a first inning that required 30 pitches from Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer (10-11). In contrast, Dickey needed just 31 pitches in his first three innings.<\/p>\n

Bauer, a 24-year-old right-hander, gave up four runs on six hits and a walk in 1 1\/3 innings in a miserable Rogers Centre debut.<\/p>\n

There was good news for the Jays elsewhere as Marcus Stroman, in his first rehab start since undergoing knee surgery in March, struck out seven and walked one in 4 2\/3 no-hit innings for the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts against the Great Lakes Loons.<\/p>\n

Toronto has an off day Thursday before hosting the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Even in an MVP-calibre season, Josh Donaldson finds new ways to impress. The Toronto third baseman drove in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":60674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-60673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-original","mauthors-neil-davidson","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}