Toronto 7, Miami 2
When: 12:37 PM ET, Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Where: Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Temperature:
Indoors
Umpires:
Home -
Scott Barry, 1B -
Ted Barrett, 2B -
Chris Conroy, 3B -
Angel Hernandez
Attendance:
44106
By The Sports Xchange
TORONTO -- Scott Copeland gave the Toronto Blue Jays everything they needed in his spot start Wednesday afternoon.
The right-hander allowed six hits and one run and struck out four in seven innings in his first major-league start, and the Blue Jays extended their season-best winning streak to eight games with a 7-2 win over the Miami Marlins.
"He was unbelievable," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "I don't know how you can do it any better than that."
The Blue Jays gave Copeland plenty of support. First baseman Justin Smoak, catcher Russell Martin, shortstop Jose Reyes and third baseman Josh Donaldson each hit a home run as the Blue Jays swept the Marlins in the three-game series and finished their home stand 6-0.
Marlins center fielder Marcell Ozuna extended his season-best hitting streak to 11 games when he hit his fourth homer of the season against left-hander Brett Cecil in the ninth.
Copeland (1-0), who pitched twice in relief in his previous stint with Toronto, was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo for the start. The move was made when scheduled starter, right-hander Aaron Sanchez, needed to be skipped a start because of general soreness.
After the game, the Blue Jays returned Copeland to Buffalo on option with a corresponding move to be made Friday before the team's next game, which is in Boston.
"Any time you ask a major-league hitter, they hate facing guys they haven't seen," Marlins manager Dan Jennings said. "We hit some balls hard that were at people, but just not enough, and we couldn't bunch the hits together. Our inability to do that today really didn't give us a chance to put crooked numbers on the board, and you need to do that against a team like this."
"At first I was up in the zone, but after the first inning I got in the groove and started pounding the zone," Copeland said. "Hopefully the manager's and coaches' eyes are open now and the next time something happens I'll be up."
Marlins right-hander Tom Koehler (4-4) allowed eight hits, two walks and six runs, and struck out seven in 6 2/3 innings. He gave up three home runs.
"They're swinging it real well right now," Koehler said. "They're a real quality lineup and they're one you've really got to minimize the mistakes against and unfortunately today, early on, I struggled with my fastball command and I left a couple of pitches up in the zone and they punished them pretty good."
The Blue Jays (31-30) scored twice in the second. Designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion started the rally with an infield single to third that took a weird bounce.
Smoak then hit a ground-rule double to right.
The first run scored on a chopped infield single by Martin, who continued to second on third baseman Martin Prado's errant throw home.
Center fielder Kevin Pillar hit a sacrifice fly to left to make the score 2-0.
The Blue Jays stretched the lead to 5-0 in the fourth.
Encarnacion, who left the game in the eighth when his sore left shoulder flared up, led off with a double that right fielder Ichiro Suzuki could not hold in his glove after he got turned around while tracking the ball.
On the next pitch, Smoak hit his fourth homer of the season into the second deck in right. Martin hit his ninth homer of the season to right-center on a 3-2 pitch.
The Marlins (24-36) scored in the fifth on a one-out single by catcher Jeff Mathis and a two-out triple by Suzuki.
Reyes restored Toronto's five-run lead with his second homer of the season with two outs in the seventh to send Koehler from the game.
Right-hander Sam Dyson took over for the Marlins and was greeted by Donaldson's 17th homer of the season.
It was the second time in the game, and the third time this season, that the Blue Jays had hit back-to-back home runs.
Left-hander Adam Conley
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
| Miami |
|
Toronto |
|
Tom Koehler
|
Player |
Scott Copeland |
|
Loss |
W/L |
Win |
|
6.2 |
IP |
7.0 |
|
7 |
Strikeouts |
4 |
|
8 |
Hits |
6 |
|
6.75 |
ERA |
1.29 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| Miami
|
7 |
1 |
14 |
.206 |
9 |
6 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Toronto
|
9 |
4 |
23 |
.300 |
5 |
7 |
7 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
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