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Happ’s 20th, 4 HRs put Jays alone atop AL Wild Card
- Updated: September 21, 2016
SEATTLE — J.A. Happ became Toronto’s first 20-game winner since 2008 on Tuesday night and delivered a blow to his former Mariners teammates’ playoff chances in the process, while the Blue Jays smacked four home runs in a 10-2 runaway at Safeco Field.
Happ allowed two runs over five innings while striking out eight as he hiked his record to 20-4 with a 3.28 ERA, moving the Blue Jays into sole possession of the American League’s top Wild Card spot, four games back of AL East-leading Boston at 83-68.
The 33-year-old southpaw was 4-6 with a 4.64 ERA In 21 starts for Seattle last year, but has gone 27-6 with a 2.91 ERA in 41 games since with the Pirates and Blue Jays.
“That’s hard to do at the big league level, best baseball in the world and he has had some kind of season,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said of Happ’s 20th win. “He’s going to keep going strong, but it’s quite the accomplishment.”
• Happ joins Blue Jays elite with 20th victory
Seattle is 9-4 over its last 13 games, but back-to-back losses to Toronto have dropped the Mariners four back of the Blue Jays and three back of Baltimore — which lost to Boston, 5-2 — for the second Wild Card spot with 11 games remaining.
Hisashi Iwakuma, who has been Seattle’s most consistent starter this year, took a 2-0 lead into the fourth before getting rocked for six straight one-out hits and the Blue Jays’ first six runs in an eight-run inning.
Michael Saunders, another former Mariner, and Russell Martin each had two-run blasts in the Blue Jays’ breakout rally. Josh Donaldson added his 35th homer of the season in the sixth and Edwin Encarnacion launched his 42nd in the eighth. Iwakuma lasted just 3 1/3 innings as he fell to 16-12 with a 4.04 ERA.
“We scratched out a couple runs, got a big hit, finally got a lead and start getting some momentum going our way, and then unfortunately that shutdown inning was not existent,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Things got away from us there. It’s disappointing, no doubt. We’ve got to try to regroup and we’ve got to get back to playing good baseball. We’re just not playing good baseball.”
• Western Canada has invaded Seattle
MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDThey knee-d that: Robinson Cano has been struggling of late, but the Mariners’ All-Star second baseman got a break when his hard-hit smash in the third deflected off the knee of Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis — who was shifted into shallow right field — and the ball rolled all the way to the outfield corner. Cano raced to third with a two-out, two-run triple to give Seattle its short-lived lead. It was Cano’s first extra-base hit and …
