TORONTO (AP) - The Toronto Blue Jays have slugged their way to early win streak.
Josh Donaldson and Aledmys Diaz each hit a two-run homer, and the Blue Jays routed the Chicago White Sox 14-5 on Tuesday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
Donaldson went 2 for 4 with three RBIs. Diaz had three hits before leaving after six innings because of back spasms. He is day to day.
Donaldson and Diaz also went deep in Monday’s night’s 4-2 victory over Chicago. The Blue Jays have hit at least one home run in each of their first six games for the first time since 2000.
“We can spread it out through the lineup pretty good,” manager John Gibbons said. “It’s a good-hitting park. We’ll hit our share.”
Ten of Toronto’s 14 hits were for extra bases, including seven doubles.
“The story of the day was their offense,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “We just weren’t able to contain them.”
Avisail Garcia, Tim Anderson and Yolmer Sanchez hit solo home runs for the White Sox. Chicago has 12 home runs over its first four games.
According to Statcast, Garcia’s one-out drive off J.A. Happ in the fifth travelled 481 feet, making it the longest home run in the majors this season and the longest by a White Sox player since Statcast was introduced in 2015. Garcia’s exit velocity of 116.7 mph was also a White Sox record.
His towering shot hit off the facing of the fourth deck in left-center, just below the window of a stadium hotel room.
“A pretty impressive blast, to be honest,” Renteria said. “Anybody who is a fan of baseball must have been impressed by that shot.”
Anderson went 3 for 4, finishing a triple shy of the cycle. He stole two bases and scored three runs.
Happ (1-1) struck out nine in 5 1/3 innings, but was charged with four runs and seven hits.
“I missed over the plate a couple times and I got hurt when I did,” Happ said.
Nicky Delmonico’s RBI single gave Chicago a 1-0 lead in the second, but Toronto answered with three in the third. Luke Maile hit a leadoff double and scored on Diaz’s homer. Justin Smoak drew a two-out walk and later scored on an error by Anderson at shortstop.
Anderson homered to begin the fourth, making it 3-2, but the Blue Jays added three more in the bottom half. Diaz hit an RBI double and Donaldson homered off Miguel Gonzalez (0-1).
“They’re good hitters,” Gonzalez said. “They’re going to capitalize when you make mistakes and that’s really what happened tonight.”
Chicago’s Adam Engel hit a run-scoring grounder off Danny Barnes in the sixth and Sanchez connected off Tyler Clippard in the eighth.
Toronto put the game away with a seven-run, 11-batter eighth, beating up a trio of relievers. Four of Toronto’s five hits in the inning were doubles.
WHISTLE BLOWER
One night after Donaldson pretended to blow a whistle after hitting a home run, the Blue Jays slugger came to the plate while rapper Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle” played. Donaldson made the whistle gesture at White Sox first base coach Daryl Boston, who uses a whistle to acknowledge good defensive plays, and to get the attention of outfielders for defensive positioning.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Blue Jays: Donaldson (dead arm) returned to third base for the first time since opening day after starting at DH the previous four games. … Gift Ngoepe replaced Diaz at shortstop.
UP NEXT
White Sox: RHP Carson Fulmer makes his first start of the season in Wednesday’s series finale. Fulmer has never faced the Blue Jays.
Blue Jays: RHP Aaron Sanchez (0-1) allowed four runs and eight hits in a March 30 loss to the New York Yankees. He has a 2.08 ERA in three career games against the White Sox.
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