Solarte powers Jays past Nats
TORONTO Yangervis Solarte is nearing a career high in home runs — and he’s doing it from both sides of the plate.
Solarte hit a pair of homers, including a two-run shot in the seventh inning, as Toronto held off the Washington Nationals for a 65 on Friday. The switch-hitting Solarte became only the ninth Blue Jay to homer from both sides of the plate in the same game.
“It’s hard but it’s my job,” said Solarte through a translator. “I’m just trying to do my best every time I go out there. I was lucky enough that I had good opportunities and we took advantage of it and it just happened that we got a win today.”
Kendrys Morales was the last Toronto hitter to manage the feat in Toronto’s 8-4 win over the Oakland Athletics on July 27 of last season.
Solarte now has 14 homers on the season, four short of the careerhigh 18 he had last year with the San Diego Padres.
“It feels good, but you don’t look at numbers you just try to look at wins,” said Solarte. “The main goal here is to win. When everything’s doing well, we’re winning, I think everyone’s stats just kind of take care of themselves.”
Devon Travis also hit a two-run homer as Toronto (3138) snapped a three-game losing skid. He’s 16 for 51 in his last 17 games, hitting .314.
“Homers are great,” said Travis. “I don’t know if it’s something we strive to do here but when we do it’s a thing of beauty, for sure.”
Aaron Sanchez struck out eight — including Nationals slugger Bryce Harper twice — over six innings, allowing three runs. Seungwan Oh, Aaron Loup, and John Axford came out of the bullpen for Toronto, with Loup and Axford each giving up a run.
Ryan Tepera earned his fourth save of the season, while Oh (2-2) was the pitcher of record when the Blue Jays pulled ahead in the seventh.
Anthony Rendon, Pedro Severino and Daniel Murphy had RBI singles for Washington (37-29).
Gio Gonzalez (6-3) gave up five runs over six innings, fanning three. Toronto had dropped 11 games in a row to left-handed starters until Gonzalez took the loss.