Blue Jays complete sweep of Diamondbacks at home with 7-5 victory

By Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press on July 16, 2023.

TORONTO – Danny Jansen’s three-run double in the eighth inning led the Toronto Jays to a 7-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday and sweep of their three-game series.

Santiago Espinal, Kevin Kiermaier, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., with the go-ahead play, and Daulton Varsho also drove in runs for Toronto (53-41), which has won four in a row and eight of its last nine.

Starter Yusei Kikuchi struck out four batters, walked three and surrendered two hits in 4 2/3 innings of action in front of a sellout crowd of 41,794 at Rogers Centre.

Relief pitcher Jay Jackson (2-0) picked up the win for the Blue Jays. Fellow relievers Tim Mayza, Trevor Richards, Yimi Garcia, Mitch White and Erik Swanson held on to close things out.

Ketel Marte had three RBIs late for Arizona (52-42), which dropped its fourth in a row.

Starter Tommy Henry (5-2) had five strikeouts, while surrendering seven hits and one walk in 4 1/3 innings. Kevin Ginkel, Miguel Castro, Scott McGough – who gave up all four earned runs after Henry’s exit – and Justin Martinez came on in relief.

The Diamondbacks opened the scoring in the first.

After putting former Jay Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Christian Walker on base – hitting Gurriel with a pitch and walking Walker – Kikuchi attempted to pick off Gurriel at second. However, he threw the ball into the outfield and Gurriel narrowly beat the throw home to score.

Arizona scored again in the second thanks to another mishap from Kikuchi. After putting Jake McCarthy on base by hitting him with a pitch, Kikuchi threw a wild pitch that allowed Nick Ahmed to score from third.

But the Blue Jays got their bats going in the bottom of the inning. Espinal nailed a double into deep centre field to score Whit Merrifield.

Kiermaier immediately followed with a single to centre field to score Espinal and tie the game at 2-2.

The Blue Jays took their first lead of the game in the fifth when Guerrero’s sacrifice fly against Ginkel brought Kiermaier home from third base.

Jansen hit a line drive to centre field off McGough with one out and the bases loaded to the delight of the Toronto faithful. Guerrero, Merrifield and Matt Chapman all reached home and McGough was pulled for Martinez the very next at bat.

Shortly after, Varsho got in on the fun as a pinch-hitter and singled to bring Jansen home to close a four-run eighth.

White walked three batters in the ninth and was pulled in favour of Swanson. But Marte hit a double into right field to score Corbin Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo and McCarthy before Emmanuel Rivera hit a flyout to end the game.

LONG TIME NO SEE

The last time Toronto and Arizona met in a series was in 2019, which the Diamondbacks swept at Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays’ only other sweep of Arizona was in a two-game set in July 2016.

ON DECK

Toronto has the day off Monday before beginning a three-game home series against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday.

Joe Musgrove (8-2) is scheduled to start for the Padres, while the Blue Jays’ starter is still to be announced.