Blue Jays blast four homers in topping Yankees

Toronto, ON, Canada (AHN Sports) – J.P. Arencibia, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista and Kelly Johnson all homered, and the Toronto Blue Jays got back on track with an 8-1 thumping of the New York Yankees Wednesday night at Rogers Centre.

It was more than enough to make a winner out of starting pitcher Kyle Drabek (3-4), who tossed seven frames of one-run ball.

The Blue Jays, who lost two in a row to the Tampa Bay Rays, to kick off its current seven-game homestand, took an early 2-0 lead when Arencibia ripped a 3-1 slider to the left in the second inning off New York starter Hiroki Kuroda for his fourth home run of the season.

Encarnacion then broke the game wide open with a three-run shot to center the following frame, hiking it to 5-0. It was the 13th home run of the season for designated hitter Encarnacion, who entered the tilt second in the American League in RBI (31), third in extra-base hits (21) and fourth in total bases (83).

Bautista’s solo blast in the fifth increased the lead to 7-0 before Johnson’s long ball in the seventh made it an 8-1 contest.

Drabek, who had struggled with his command the last couple starts after opening the 2012 season with back-to-back wins, snapped a four-start losing skid by scattering three hits over seven frames.

The Jays’ second-year right-hander walked four and struck out five. With the adjustments made by Toronto, Drabek was able to maximize his hard sinker as he got 13 of his 21 outs on ground balls.

Drabek, who had diffiulty in controlling his two-seam fastball, allowed New York’s first hit of the game in the fourth, when Raul Ibanez hit a two-out single.

In the sixth Mark Teixeira crushed a routine grounder that caught the seam for the Yankee’s first and only run of the contest. It was also Teixeira’s 1,500th career hit.

Kuroda (3-5) allowed three homers and was tagged with a career-high seven runs in the opener of a brief two-game series. The Yankees right-hander, who fanned six and walked two in his first career outing against the Blue Jays, remain winless (0-4) on the road this year.

The Yankees have lost three of their last four.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays were able to shrug off the distraction of Brett Lawrie’s suspension following Tuesday night’s incident.

Prior to Wednesday’s tilt, the Blue Jays third baseman received the four-game ban and fined an undisclosed amount for his aggressive actions toward umpire Bill Miller during Tuesday’s game against the Rays.

Lawrie, who played Wednesday and went 0-for-4 with a run scored, apologized to Miller prior to the game, according to MLB.com.

Lawrie will file an appeal to the Major League Baseball’s ruling.

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