Kevin Gausman struck out a season-high-tying 10 over seven innings and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Los Angeles Angels 8-2 Sunday afternoon.
Addison Barger and Alejandro Kirk hit two-run home runs for the Blue Jays, who swept the four-game series and the seven-game season series against the staggering Angels. Toronto has homered in 14 straight games.
It was the fourth 10-strikeout game of the season for Gausman (12-9). He allowed one run, two hits and no walks and retired his final 12 batters.
Brandon Drury hit a solo homer for the Angels.
Los Angeles left-hander Tyler Anderson (10-12) allowed two runs, four hits and four walks with three strikeouts in five innings.
Anderson allowed three walks (one intentional) when Toronto scored a run in the third. Davis Schneider walked and took second on Addison Barger’s single. The runners moved to second and third on a groundout. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was intentionally walked before Kirk walked to force in a run.
Gausman retired his first nine batters before Taylor Ward, whose ninth-inning home run on Saturday ended Bowden Francis’s no-hit bid, led off the fourth with a triple. Zach Neto followed with an RBI single.
Toronto regained the lead in the fifth. George Springer led off with a single and scored on Guerrero’s one-out double to center.
The Jays stretched the lead to 4-1 in the sixth against Hunter Strickland on Barger’s fifth homer of the season, and second of the series, on a two-out blast to right. It scored Will Wagner, who had walked.
Toronto added two in the seventh against Matt Moore on Kirk’s fifth homer of the season, a drive to left-center. It followed an intentional walk after the count reached 3-1 on Guerrero. Four pitches into his next batter, Moore left with an injury and Ryan Zeferjahn replaced him, making his major league debut.
Drury hit his second homer this season, a drive to left in the eighth, against Tommy Nance.
Zeferjahn allowed two runs in the eighth on a hit batter, two walks, Joey Loperfido’s fielder’s choice grounder and Guerrero’s bloop single.
–Field Level Media
