TORONTO (AP) -- Jose Bautista hit a grand slam, Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson homered and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins 9-7 Wednesday night for their fourth straight win.
Encarnacion hit a three-run drive and Donaldson added a two-run shot. Toronto has homered in 17 of 18 games since the All-Star break, with 10 multihomer games in that span.
The Blue Jays will try Thursday to sweep the four-game series between wild card contenders. The slumping Twins have lost four in a row and nine of 11.
 
Bautista hits slam, Blue Jays beat Twins, win 4th in row
 
Miguel Sano homered and had three RBIs for the Twins, who had been held to one run in four of their previous five games.
Sano hit an RBI single and Trevor Plouffe doubled home two runs as the Twins jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first against Drew Hutchison (10-2).
Toronto answered in the bottom half against right-hander Tyler Duffey (0-1), who was making his major league debut. Troy Tulowitzki walked and Donaldson hit his 29th homer, tying a career high.
Donaldson has homered in three straight games and six of the past 10. He has a 23-game hitting streak against Minnesota, the longest active streak by any player against a single opponent.
Bautista made it 6-3 in the second with his fifth career grand slam and 24th home run of the season.
The slam gave Toronto its 38th four-run inning of the season, more than any other team.
Duffey allowed only two home runs in 132 minor league innings at Double-A and Triple-A this season, but matched that total in two innings against a powerful Blue Jays lineup.
Duffey allowed six runs and five hits in two innings.
Encarnacion made it 9-3 with a three-run drive off reliever J.R. Graham in the fourth, his 20th. The second-deck drive traveled an estimated 462 feet.
Joe Mauer hit a two-run single in the fifth and Sano followed with a two-run homer, his fifth, cutting it to 9-7.
Hutchison gave up seven runs, three of them earned, in five innings. He has allowed an AL-high 81 runs and hasn't reached the seventh inning since June 6 against Houston.
Liam Hendriks, Brett Cecil and Mark Lowe all worked one inning of relief before LaTroy Hawkins finished for his third save.
 

Comments are closed.