Upton Jr.’s speed adding dimension to lineup

TORONTO — Melvin Upton Jr. had never hit a Little League home run, not even in Little League, when folks still called him B.J.

But he did it on Saturday in the eighth inning, finishing an electrifying excursion around the bases in a leisurely trot and scoring the deciding run in the Blue Jays’ 8-7 win over the Twins.

With Kevin Pillar on second base, Upton hit a sinking liner into right field. Charging and diving, Max Kepler thought he could catch it, but the ball bounced past him and rolled deep into the outfield, where Kepler raced to catch up and compounded his misery by kicking it to the warning track.

The speedy Upton Jr. figured he had a triple when Kepler missed the catch, but then he saw third-base coach Luis Rivera waving him home as a crowd of more than 47,000 stood and rocked the Rogers Centre.

“I was just running, man,” Upton said. “I don’t even know that I really heard them.”

The hit was ruled a triple, with Upton scoring on the error. He might have scored even without the error.

“I think the right man was running at that time,” said reliever Jason Grilli, who pitched a scoreless eighth with the Blue Jays down a run.

Center fielder …

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