Donaldson hits 2 home runs, Carrera and Tulowitzki hit one each: Jays beat Royals

Royals 3 Blue Jays 8

More than halfway through the season and R.A. Dickey gets his first win at home. It’s not all his fault, his teammates have scored 3 or less runs in 7 of his previous 8 starts at home this year.

R.A. was good, going 7 innings, allowing just 4 hits, 3 walks, with 8 strikeouts. The 2 runs scored against him were unearned because of a Michael Saunders error in left. After the 2-out error, Cheslor Cuthbert hit a home run.

Joe Biagini pitched a nice 8th, then ran into some troubles in the 9th, giving up a single and a double for a run,but then he shut down the Royals before we could get nervous.

On offense, well, we hit a bunch of home runs:

• Josh Donaldson had a solo homer in the first.
• Ezequiel Carrera (his 4th of the season, setting a new career high) and Josh Donaldosh had back-to-back homers in the 3rd inning.
• And, also in the 3rd, after an Edwin Encarnacion single and Saunders double, Troy Tulowitzki drove them both in with a 3-run shot.

We added a single run in both the 4th (Edwin drove in Donaldson) and the 7th (a Kevin sac fly scored, you guessed it, Donaldson).

Donaldson scored 4 runs tonight, bringing him up to 77 on the season. And the 2 home runs gives in 22 this year and 63 total as a Blue Jay, equalling hit total as an Athletic.

We had 13 hits on the day, 7 (and all 4 home runs) against Royals starter Chris Young, who only made it through 2.1 innings. The top of the order had a great night. Carrera, Donaldson, Encarnacion and Saunders had 9 hits in 17 at bats.

Jays of the Day are Dickey (.179 WPA) and Donaldson (.174).

No Suckage Jays. Thole had the low mark at -.031 one. He was the only starter without a hit, going 0 for 4. He got robbed on a line drive, pounding it straight into the glove of first baseman Eric Hosmer, resulting in a line out double play when Devon Travis didn’t have time to get back to the bag.

I thought this was kind of funny, Royals pitcher Peter Moylan trying to make the tag on Travis without the ball.

We had 941 comments in the game thread. Barraqudie led us to victory. Great job.