Price, Blue Jays Blast Angels 9-2
ANAHEIM (AP) — David Price struck out nine during eight innings of six-hit ball, and Josh Donaldson drove in three runs in the streaking Toronto Blue Jays' 9-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.
Justin Smoak hit a two-run homer and Ben Revere had four hits for the Blue Jays, who opened a weekend meeting of the AL wild card leaders with their 17th victory in 21 games.
Angels All-Star Hector Santiago was chased in the fourth inning for his shortest start of the season. He walked four in the first inning before Toronto scored two runs on Shane Victorino's first error in two years.
Kole Calhoun homered for the Angels, who stayed in the second wild card spot despite their eighth loss in 12 games.
The win by Toronto (67-55) and the Yankees' (67-54) loss to Cleveland trimmed New York's lead in the AL East to a half-game.
Price (12-4) was better than he needed to be while picking up his third victory in four starts for the Blue Jays, who acquired the former Cy Young winner for the pennant race. The left-hander retired 10 straight between Mike Trout's first-inning walk and C.J. Cron's leadoff double in the fifth, Los Angeles' first hit.
Cron scored on Chris Iannetta's double down the first-base line, but Price pitched out of that jam before striking out five Angels in the next two innings.
Santiago (7-7) couldn't come back from a 48-pitch first inning. He walked four of his first six batters, including Russell Martin with the bases loaded.
Victorino then failed to catch Kevin Pillar's low, playable liner to left, allowing two more runs to score. The four-time Gold Glove winner hadn't made an error in 113 games since Aug. 14, 2013.
Victorino was given another error on a throw to the plate in the ninth.
Donaldson chased Santiago with an RBI double in the fourth. He drilled another run-scoring double off the wall in the eighth for his 94th RBI of the season, prompting chants of "M-V-P!" from the Canadian fans at the Big A.
Trout, the reigning AL MVP, went 0 for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts, dropping his August batting average to .183.
Smoak connected for his 12th homer in the seventh inning, one pitch after Angels second baseman Ryan Jackson dropped an easily catchable pop fly. That mistake allowed Edwin Encarnacion to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 17 games.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Blue Jays: Martin stayed in the lineup despite recurring hamstring pain in his left leg.
Angels: 2B Johnny Giavotella was sent home with an illness. ... 3B David Freese starts a rehab assignment with Triple-A Salt Lake on Sunday in his comeback from a broken finger.
UP NEXT
Blue Jays: Marco Estrada (10-7, 3.20 ERA) takes the mound.
Angels: Rookie Andrew Heaney (5-1, 2.43 ERA) has yielded more than two runs just once in his 10 starts this season.
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