Field Level Media
Aug 24, 2018
Kendrys Morales homered for a career-best fifth straight game, Billy McKinney added a two-run shot and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 Friday night.
Toronto starter Ryan Borucki (3-3) allowed two runs, seven hits and one walk while striking out five in 6 1/3 innings to win the opener of the three-game series.
Ken Giles pitched around a single and a walk in the ninth inning to earn his fifth save for Toronto and his 17th save of the season.
Scott Kingery homered for Philadelphia.
Phillies starter Jake Arrieta (9-9) allowed four runs, six hits and three walks and struck out five in six-plus innings.
The Phillies struck with a run in the first inning. Cesar Hernandez and Rhys Hoskins singled and advanced on a wild pitch when Asdrubal Cabrera struck out. Wilson Ramos hit a sacrifice fly.
Toronto center fielder Kevin Pillar threw out Kingery at the plate in the second inning after a single by Roman Quinn. Kingery reached second on a single and stolen base.
Morales led off the bottom of the second with his 19th homer of the season. He has six homers in his past five games.
The Blue Jays took a 3-1 lead in the third when McKinney hit his second homer of the season after Aledmys Diaz's leadoff walk.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who was activated from the disabled list for the game, extended his hit streak to 12 games with an RBI single in the fifth. It scored Diaz, who led off with a double.
Despite extending his streak, his string of 11 straight games with multiple hits ended. It was tied with Shoeless Joe Jackson (1912) and Sam Rice (1925) for the longest such streak in American League history.
Ryan Tepera replaced Borucki with one out in the seventh after Kingery hit his seventh homer of the season.
Arrieta was replaced by Hector Neris with no outs in the seventh after Diaz reached first on an error by shortstop Kingery and McKinney was hit by a pitch. Neris struck out three batters to end the inning.
Toronto's Tyler Clippard pitched around a single and had two strikeouts in the top of the eighth.
Luis Avilan retired Morales on a grounder to shortstop in the bottom of the eighth, his only batter, and Luis Garcia replaced him and retired both batters he faced.
--Field Level Media