Field Level Media
Apr 20, 2019
Rowdy Tellez and Brandon Drury hit back-to-back home runs in a five-run fourth inning Saturday afternoon as the Toronto Blue Jays overcame an injury to starting pitcher Matt Shoemaker to thump the Oakland Athletics 10-1 in Oakland, Calif.
Even though he left after three innings with a knee injury, Shoemaker teamed with Sam Gaviglio (2-0) and Elvis Luciano on a six-hitter for Toronto's second consecutive win of the series.
The blowout ended with former Blue Jays slugger Kendrys Morales making his second career relief appearance. Facing his old teammates, he gave up one run on a single, two walks, a hit batter and a sacrifice fly in his one inning.
Mike Fiers (2-2) took the loss for the A's, who also were beaten 5-1 by the Blue Jays in the opener of the three-game set on Friday night.
After Toronto went up 1-0 on an Eric Sogard RBI hit in the third inning, the visitors blew the game open in the fourth.
Justin Smoak and Teoscar Hernandez opened the inning with singles to set the stage for Tellez, whose fourth homer of the season matched his total from last year as a rookie.
Two pitches later, Drury, who also had homered in the series opener, took Fiers deep for a 5-0 lead.
After a subsequent double by Billy McKinney and single by Sogard, Fiers was pulled in favor of Liam Hendriks, who served up an RBI single to Freddy Galvis to complete the five-run inning.
Fiers was charged with six runs in his 3 1/3 innings. He allowed nine hits and no walks while striking out four.
Drury increased the Toronto lead to 7-0 when he capped a two-RBI day with a run-scoring double in the fifth, driving in Tellez, who also had doubled.
Smoak added his fourth homer of the season, a two-run shot, in the sixth.
Gaviglio was the standout among the three Toronto pitchers, throwing four innings of no-hit ball in relief of Shoemaker. He struck out five in his 12-out stint.
The A's prevented a shutout against Luciano in the ninth when Robbie Grossman doubled and scored on Mark Canha's sacrifice fly.
In a rare pitcher-versus-pitcher matchup in an American League game, Morales drew a walk from Luciano with two outs in the ninth. Jurickson Profar flied out with the bases loaded to end the game.
Tellez and Drury had three hits each, while Sogard, Galvis, Smoak and McKinney collected two apiece for Toronto, which improved to 5-1 on its seven-game trip.
The Blue Jays out-hit the A's 15-6.
Matt Chapman and Stephen Piscotty combined for four of Oakland's six hits, each with a pair of singles.
--Field Level Media