Kendrys Morales ditched his glasses and found his swing.
Morales connected for a pinch-hit homer in the 10th inning 49ers Kentavius Street Jersey , sending the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday.
Morales hit a two-out drive to right off Hansel Robles for his eighth homer. Robles (2-3) was making his Angels debut after he was claimed off waivers from the New York Mets.
The 35-year-old Morales made his major league debut with Los Angeles in 2006 and played for the Angels for six years.
”It always feels good, I don’t think it matters more or less that it was the team that signed me,” Morales said through an interpreter. ”That was a good moment and I’ll take it and I’m happy for it.”
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons thinks there’s something to Morales not using the glasses he tried.
”He’s always been a good hitter. He’s always been a dangerous hitter,” Gibbons said. ”I was telling somebody the other day, he got rid of his glasses. The glasses were screwing him up.”
Curtis Granderson, Aledmys Diaz and Devon Travis also homered for Toronto, which split the four-game series after dropping the first two. Diaz had two hits and scored three times.
Travis praised Gibbons for sending Morales to the plate in the 10th.
”Two outs, putting Kendrys in in that situation. He’s a good hitter. That was awesome,” Travis said. ”Kendrys has been swinging the bat so well really all year. You can look at his numbers and they don’t quite tell the story. I feel every time the guy goes to the box he puts the barrel on the ball, he puts up a good at-bat and just happy things have been going better in the luck department lately. That was a big one right there. He’s a guy in this locker room that gels everyone together.”
The Blue Jays had a 6-3 lead before the Angels rallied in the eighth, taking advantage of two errors. Ryan Tepera (5-2) replaced Aaron Loup with two out and the bases loaded Authentic Josh Rosen Jersey , and Martin Maldonado responded with a three-run double to left.
Tepera then picked Maldonado off second to end the inning. He also worked the ninth, and Tyler Clippard got three outs for his fourth save.
Toronto jumped in front on Travis’ three-run homer off Felix Pena in the second. Diaz hit a tiebreaking leadoff drive in the sixth, and Granderson added his seventh of the season with two out.
Justin Upton hit his 17th homer for the Angels, and Maldonado had two hits and four RBIs. Pena, a converted reliever making his second career start, allowed three runs and eight hits in five innings.
”We battled back. We didn’t do enough things in the end,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ”We couldn’t keep it in the park. They hit four home runs off us. We do a good job getting back in games.”
FREE TIME
Angels star Mike Trout has some free time during games when he serves as the designated hitter. His sprained index finger has kept him from playing center field, which can make for some restless moments.
”I’m going to tell him to go play catch in left field and roll it back left-handed so he can feel like he plays some defense. He goes crazy in the dugout,” Scioscia said. ”DHing is not easy, especially when you’re used to the everyday separation of going out there and focusing on defense. The best thing to get an at-bat out of your head is to go out and play defense.”
PITCHING WITH PURPOSE
Toronto right-hander Sam Gaviglio was charged with three runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings in his first start back from paternity leave. Gaviglio’s daughter, Livia Authentic Terrell Edmunds Jersey , was born on Tuesday.
”It was nice. It’s like riding a bike,” Gaviglio said. ”It’s just another baseball game.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Angels: LHP Tyler Skaggs, who was scratched on Thursday with hamstring tightness, came out of his bullpen session Saturday with no problems and will start Monday.
UP NEXT
Blue Jays: LHP J.A. Happ (9-3, 3.56 ERA) pitches Monday against Houston. Happ has allowed no runs in two of his last three starts.
Angels: Skaggs (6-4, 2.81 ERA) is all set for a makeup game at Kansas City. He is 3-0 with a sparkling 0.45 ERA in June.
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MILWAUKEE — Jorge Polanco is expected to make his season debut Monday night when the Minnesota Twins open a two-game interleague series against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.
Polanco will be reinstated Monday from his 80-game suspension for use of performance-enhancing drugs after going 6-for-13 in four games with Triple-A Rochester.
He batted .256 with 13 home runs, 30 doubles in 133 games last year and was especially strong in the second half, slashing .293/.359/.511 with 10 homers and 43 RBIs.
That performance moved him into the No. 3 spot in the Twins’ lineup, but manager Paul Molitor said he probably won’t bat that high right away upon his return.
“We know what he did last year when he had a chance to move up into a pretty important role,” Molitor told reporters Sunday in Chicago. “I don’t know we’ll jump him up there that fast. For us to see him is going to be different than hearing about him and reading about him and texting him and all those kinds of things.
“We’ll see how it is. To be honest, coming up here and playing Reggie White Jersey , even though he’s doing really well, it’s going to be a little different than what he’s been doing.”
Right-hander Kyle Gibson (2-6) starts for Minnesota. He posted a 2.45 ERA through his first four June starts but saw that number grow to 3.35 after allowing five runs in seven innings to the Chicago White Sox his last time out.
Gibson struck out seven in the game and walked just one but gave up a season-high 11 hits.
“I went back and looked at some of the hits I gave up,” Gibson said. “I don’t know if I just picked the wrong pitch at the wrong time or what. I executed quite a few pitches there, and they found holes.”
The Twins dropped a three-game weekend series to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field and have lost eight of their last 10 overall.
Milwaukee struggled during the weekend, too, dropping the last two of a four-game series at Cincinnati. The Brewers managed just five total runs in those losses while allowing 20, including a grand slam in each one.
“Two runs, three runs … You’re going to need more to win most games,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said.
Despite that showing, the Brewers will return home still leading the National League Central by a half-game over the Cubs, who will be idle Monday.
Brent Suter (8-5) gets the nod in the series opener. He’ll be looking to get back on track after his three-game winning streak was snapped last week by the Kansas City Royals.
Suter overcame a somewhat slow start to the season and has turned into a solid starter in the last two months. He’s 6-2 with a 3.50 ERA in his last eight starts. Before his outing against Kansas City Youth John Moore Jersey , he hadn’t allowed more than three runs in his previous seven games.
Part of Suter’s success can be attributed to his pace, which is among the game’s fastest. That makes it difficult for hitters to settle in between pitches and, Suter admits, there can be a slight advantage to working quickly.
“I don’t want to quick-pitch people; I don’t do that,” he said. “But I want to keep the tempo up and let my fielders get back in and hit as quickly as possible. That’s how I operate. If that gets them uncomfortable, that’s fine, but I’m just in attack mode and up-tempo.”
Suter is 1-0 with a 3.72 ERA in two career starts against the Twins, both of which came at Target Field. He held them to a run and five hits while striking out six in 5 2/3 innings on May 18.