TORONTO — Edwin Encarnacion and Eric Thames had three hits and three RBIs each and the Blue Jays used an eight-run first inning to beat the Yankees 16-7 on Thursday night.
The Blue Jays set season highs in runs and hits (20) to win their fourth straight game.
Toronto lost slugger Jose Bautista to a twisted right ankle in the fourth inning. Bautista, who leads the majors with 31 home runs, limped off after an awkward slide into third base. He is day-to-day.
Andruw Jones hit two home runs for the Yankees, the 42nd multihomer game of his career, but the Yankees couldn’t extend a nine-year streak of winning their first game following the All-Star break.
Left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes (5-7) allowed seven runs and 10 hits in 5 1-3 innings. He walked one and struck out two.
The Blue Jays knocked Yankees right-hander Bartolo Colon out of the game before the first inning was finished, doing all their damage with two outs. Yunel Escobar led off with a grounder but Thames doubled, Bautista walked and both runners moved up on Adam Lind’s grounder to first before Aaron Hill drove in both runners with a single to center.
Encarnacion walked and Travis Snider hit an RBI single before J.P. Arencibia reached on a fielding error by third baseman Eduardo Nunez. Rajai Davis and Escobar followed with infield singles, making it 4-0, before Thames chased Colon with a two-run double to center.
Colon (6-5) lost consecutive starts for the first time this season, allowing eight runs, three earned, and six hits in 2-3 of an inning, his shortest start of the year. Colon walked two and struck out none.
Luis Ayala came on and balked in an eighth run before getting Bautista to pop out.
The eight first-inning runs matched a franchise-high for the Blue Jays, who also scored eight in the first inning on Sept. 26, 2007, at Baltimore.
Thames became the first Blue Jay to get two hits in an inning since Snider doubled twice in the fifth inning of an 8-6 win at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 2, 2010.
Toronto made it 9-0 on Encarnacion’s RBI single in the second before the Yankees rallied with a four-run third against Reyes. Jones led off with a homer to left, Curtis Granderson hit a two-run triple that bounced over Thames’ head in right and Mark Teixeira followed with an RBI grounder.
The Yankees cut it to 9-7 and chased Reyes with a three-run sixth. Nick Swisher and Russell Martin led off with singles before Jones clubbed a three-run drive into the second deck in left, his sixth. Reyes left two batters later after Brett Gardner singled.
Encarnacion gave the Blue Jays some breathing room with a two-run, two-out single off Boone Logan in the bottom half, and Toronto added two more against Logan and Sergio Mitre in the seventh. Snider singled, stole second and went to third on Martin’s throwing error before scoring on Arencibia’s double, and Thames capped it with an RBI single to center.
The Blue Jays tacked on three more in the eighth against Mitre. Snider hit an RBI double, Encarnacion scored on shortstop Derek Jeter’s fielding error and Davis drove in a run with a fielder’s choice grounder.
NOTES: The Yankees put 3B Alex Rodriguez (right knee) on the 15-day DL and called up OF Greg Golson from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Rodriguez, who had surgery Monday, is expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks. … New York signed LHP J.C. Romero to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A. Washington released Romero earlier Thursday. … Two pitchers from Toronto’s team in the Dominican Summer League have been suspended 50 games each for drug violations. RHP Aderly De La Cruz and LHP Luillyn Guillen were penalized Thursday by the commissioner’s office. … John McDonald took over at third base for Bautista.
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