Today in Jays History: Donaldson Hits 3 Home Runs

Six Years Ago

The Jays beat the Twins 9-6. And Josh Donaldson hit three home runs for the first (and only) time in his career. And the field was showered with hats (well, caps, but a “cap trick” doesn’t sound right).

The win pushed our record to 74-56, 2 games up on the Red Sox for first place. We would finish second but beat the Orioles in the Wild Card game (you may remember Edwin Encarnacion’s home run).

It was the Twins' tenth loss in a row. They were 49-81, sitting at the bottom of the AL Central.

From the GameThread:

Josh Donaldson fouled a ball off his knee, in the first inning, it looked like it hurt a lot, and I was all for taking him out of the game.

Then, in the 3rd inning, he made 2 bad throws, 1 for an error and I really thought he should be out of the game.

Then he goes and hits 3 home runs. And all to dead center. Each was crushed.

His first home run broke a 1-1 tie in the third.

The Twins scored 4 in the fifth inning,, going up 5-2.

We got two in the sixth (Devon Travis had a two-run single).

Donaldson’s second homer was part of a four-run fifth, which put us ahead to stay.

His third home run was a solo shot in the eighth.

Josh drove in four runs. Troy Tulowitski hit a home run of his own. B.J. Upton drove in two runs. And Jose Bautista went 3 for 5 in the leadoff spot.

R.A. Dickey started and didn’t pitch well; 6 innings, 5 runs, 3 earned. Scott Feldman (I have no memory of him pitching for the Jays, but he pitched in 14 games that year) picked up the win.