Willingham homers as Minnesota Twins defeat Toronto Blue Jays 7-2

TORONTO – Josh Willingham belted a two-run homer and Kendrys Morales hit a bases-clearing double as the Minnesota Twins dumped the Toronto Blue Jays 7-2 on Wednesday afternoon at Rogers Centre.

Willingham staked Twins starter Phil Hughes (7-2) to an early lead with his fifth homer of the year. The veteran right-hander allowed seven hits and had nine strikeouts over seven shutout innings.

Minnesota (31-33) padded its lead with a single run in the sixth inning off Toronto starter Marcus Stroman (3-1) and added three more runs in the seventh off recent triple-A callup Bobby Korecky.

Toronto (39-28) finally gave the announced crowd of 45,080 something to cheer about by scratching out a couple runs in the eighth inning. Minnesota outhit the Blue Jays 16-10 as the Twins took the rubber game of the three-game series.

With the loss, Toronto’s lead atop the American League East division standings fell to five games over Baltimore and New York. The Orioles were home to Boston on Wednesday night while the Yankees were in Seattle.

Danny Santana opened the game with a single off Stroman, who was making his third career start. The leadoff man scored when Willingham turned on a 1-2 slider and put it into the second deck.

Minnesota threatened again in the second inning when Oswaldo Arcia led off with a ground-rule double. Stroman struck out Trevor Plouffe and got Kurt Suzuki to ground out, moving Arcia to third. Eduardo Nunez also grounded out to strand the runner.

Toronto’s Erik Kratz got into scoring position with two outs in the bottom half of the frame when he lifted a pitch into shallow centre field. Nunez, the Minnesota shortstop, and second baseman Brian Dozier collided as they tried to make a play on it and Kratz took second base as no-one covered the bag.

Hughes struck out Steve Tolleson to keep Toronto off the scoreboard.

Santana, who was 2-for-5 with two runs scored, also showed his defensive prowess in centre field. He made a nice shoestring catch on a Kratz liner in the bottom of the fifth.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons came out of the dugout to speak to the umpire but the play was not reviewed. It appeared the request was denied because he waited too long to ask for a challenge.

Morales led off the sixth with a double off the wall in centre field and moved to third when Arcia singled. Plouffe drove Morales in with a sacrifice fly to make it a 3-0 game.

Suzuki then drove a pitch off the wall in right field and was thrown out at second base by Jose Bautista. The play was reviewed and the call stood. Nunez hit a comebacker for the third out.

Toronto shortstop Jose Reyes extended his hitting streak to 12 games with an infield single in the bottom of the sixth. Nunez was wide with his throw to first but it was still called a hit.

Reyes moved to third base on a Melky Cabrera single. Arcia made a nice sliding catch in foul territory on a Bautista flyout and Hughes got out of the jam by striking out Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind.

Korecky came on in the seventh inning and gave up two infield singles and a walk. Morales swatted a Korecky curveball to the wall that brought all three runners home.

Toronto avoided a second straight shutout loss — and fourth in five games — when Bautista drove in Cabrera with a double in the eighth inning. Pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro drove in Bautista with a two-out single that put runners on the corners.

Casey Fien relieved Jared Burton and needed only one pitch to escape the jam as Tolleson flew out. Fien earned his first save of the season.

The game took two hours 57 minutes to play.

Notes: Korecky’s callup from the Buffalo Bisons was announced Wednesday morning. The Blue Jays also optioned outfielder Kevin Pillar to the Bisons. … Dozier left the game in the fourth inning due to tightness in his lower back. He was replaced at second base by Eduardo Escobar and is listed as day to day. … Toronto will kick off a four-game series at Baltimore on Thursday night. Left-hander Mark Buehrle (10-2, 2.04 ERA) is scheduled to start against right-hander Kevin Gausman (1-1, 4.91). … Reyes turned 31 on Wednesday.

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