Jonatan Clase hit a three-run homer in his first start of the season, Sean Keys contributed a two-RBI single to a five-run third inning, and the Toronto Blue Jays evened their three-game road series against the San Francisco Giants with a 9-3 victory Tuesday night.
Ernie Clement had a three-hit game while Clase, Keys and Brandon Valenzuela collected two hits apiece for the Blue Jays, who broke out of an offensive slump with a 13-hit attack.
Toronto had entered the game on a three-game losing streak, during which it was shut out twice and scored just one run.
Clase, who was promoted to the Blue Jays for the first time this season last week as George Springer went on paternity leave, gave Toronto a lead it would never relinquish with his home run in the second inning after singles by Valenzuela and Keys.
The 24-year-old had been given just one at-bat as a late-game pinch hitter last Saturday in Seattle before taking Giants starter Trevor McDonald (3-7) deep for his fourth career home run.
The Giants got one run back on an infield single by Victor Bericoto in the bottom of the second before the Blue Jays busted the game open with their five-run third.
Six of the seven batters McDonald faced in the inning recorded singles, including Keys’ two-run hit and run-scoring blows by Valenzuela and Andres Gimenez. Clement added a sacrifice fly off Adrian Houser.
McDonald was pulled after 2 1/3 innings, charged with eight runs on 11 hits. He walked one without a strikeout.
Blue Jays starter Spencer Miles allowed a second run on a Rafael Devers double-play grounder before calling it a night after four innings, during which he allowed seven hits. He struck out one.
Because Miles failed to go the required five innings, Patrick Corbin (3-4) was credited with the win after throwing 2 1/3 innings of two-hit ball. He served up the Giants’ final run on an RBI double by Luis Arraez in the fifth.
The Blue Jays capped the game’s scoring in the ninth when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded into a double play that plated Clement.
Clase, Keys and Valenzuela scored twice for the Blue Jays, who were thumped 10-1 in the series opener on Monday.
Heliot Ramos singled twice and scored twice for the Giants, who have alternated losses and wins in their past seven games. Arraez also had two hits.
–Field Level Media
