Photo credit: @Athletics

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s continued to send baseball flying out of the park as they hit three home runs to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 10-5 in the first of four games at the Rogers Centre. The A’s have not had great success in Toronto as they had lost 12 of the last 13 games played in Canada. They rectified the situation with a resounding win Thursday night.

Andrew Triggs started for Oakland. Triggs’ record was 3-1, but he was hammered by the Yankees in New York last Saturday. Triggs left the game in the third inning when he complained about tightness in his right forearm. Aaron Sanchez toed the rubber for Toronto, and he did not make it out of the fifth inning and was charged with his fourth loss.

The Blue Jays took the lead in the bottom of the second inning. Jays’ center fielder Kevin Pillar led off with his 18th double of the season to get the ball rolling for Toronto. Pillar advanced to third on a long flyout to center field. Designated hitter Kendrys Morales grounded out to drive in Pillar. The Jays lead 1-0.

The A’s scored three times in the top of the third. With one out, Matt Joyce singled. Jed Lowrie, one of the hottest hitters in baseball, doubled to drive in Joyce. Khris Davis then hit his 13th dinger of the year. Davis now has 38 RBIs to his credit and is tied with Manny Machado for the most RBIs in the league. The A’s are ahead 3-1

Aaron Sanchez walked Jed Lowrie to start the fifth inning. Toronto’s skipper, John Gibbons, replaced Sanchez with Seung-hwan Oh. Davis singles, sending Lowrie to third. The next hitter, Matt Olson, took Oh deep for his seventh big fly and the A’s upped the lead to 6-1. The A’s weren’t done scoring as third baseman Matt Chapman double. Dustin Fowler singled to knock in Chapman with the As’ fourth run of the inning, and they owned a 7-1 lead halfway through the fifth inning. The Blue Jays showed some life in their half of the fifth as they put three runs on the board to cut the lead to 7-4.

The A’s responded by scoring two more runs in the sixth. Former A’s reliever John Axford was brought in to pitch. He hit Khris Davis with a pitch, and Matt Chapman homered to make it a 9-4 game.

Toronto scored a run in the eighth, and the A’s added another run in the ninth to win 10-5.

Game Notes and Stats: The A’s have played seven games so far on the 10-game road trip and have homered in every game. The A’s season record improved to 22-22 while the Blue Jays’ record dropped to 22-22.

Khris Davis was 4-for-4, scored three times, and was on base five times. The line score for Oakland was 10 runs, 14 hits, and one error.

The line score for Toronto was five runs, seven hits, and no errors. Yusmeiro Petit was the winner, and Aaron Sanchez took the loss.

Bob Melvin used Triggs, Santiago Casillo, Yusmeiro Petit, Ryan Dull, and Lou Trivino.

The A’s announced that catcher Bruce Maxwell has been placed on the restricted list and he was not able to travel with the club to Canada. The A’s brought up Josh Phegley from Nashville to take his place.

Up Next: Game two of the series will be in Toronto at 4:10 pm PST. Brett Anderson will go for Oakland. Anderson is 0-2 with an ERA of 8.16. Anderson last pitched against the Yankees last week and was tagged for four runs in just five innings of work. Anderson will need to show improvement if he is to remain with the club. He will be opposed by the Jays’ Marco Estrada. Estrada is 2-3 and has aN ERA of 5.32. Estrada continues to have problems keeping the baseball from flying out of the park. He has allowed 10 big flys this season and gave up a career-high 31 last year.