TORONTO — John Buck became the
first catcher to hit three home runs in six years, Travis Snider added a
solo shot and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics 6-3
Thursday night.
Buck led off the third inning with a
drive off right-hander Justin Duchscherer into the left field bullpen.
His next two homers came off left-handers. He greeted reliever Jerry
Blevins with a three-run homer into the second deck in left in the
fourth and connected against Craig Breslow for a solo shot in the sixth,
off the center field restaurant.
Buck got a standing ovation from the
crowd of 10,721 when he led off the eighth against Oakland righty Andrew
Bailey. He swung and missed the first two pitches, fouled one back,
then flied out to right. The fans remained standing as Buck jogged back
to the dugout.
It's the first three-run homer game
and sixth multihomer game of Buck's career. It was the first three-homer
game by a Blue Jays player since Adam Lind did it at Boston on Sept.
29, 2009.
Victor Martinez was the last catcher
with a three-homer game, doing it for Cleveland at Seattle on July 16,
2004.
Oakland lost Duchscherer to a sore
left hip three batters into the fourth. Manager Bob Geren and trainer
Stephen Sayles came to the mound to check on Duchscherer when he
grimaced after throwing a pitch to Toronto's Jose Bautista. Duchscherer
stayed in the game but was replaced by Blevins after Bautista lined a
single to center. He limped back to the dugout.
Ducscherer (2-1) missed all of last
season after having elbow surgery.
Toronto left-hander Ricky Romero (2-1)
allowed three runs and four hits in six innings. He walked four and
struck out six.
Shawn Camp and Scott Downs each worked
an inning and Kevin Gregg struck out the side in the ninth for his
sixth save.
Kevin Kouzmanoff's RBI single gave
Oakland a 1-0 lead in the first and the Athletics added two more off
Romero in the third. Kouzmanoff reached on a fielder's choice, Adam
Rosales walked and both runners advanced on a wild pitch before Jake Fox
followed with a two-run double.
Toronto cut the deficit to one in the
bottom half when Buck and Snider homered on consecutive pitches from
Duchscherer, snapping his scoreless innings streak at 21. For the Blue
Jays, the homers ended a 19-inning scoreless drought.
Duchscherer left with runners at
first and second in the fourth. Blevins came on and served up Buck's
second homer, putting Toronto up 5-3.
Buck capped his night with a one-out
blast off Breslow in the sixth, matching his career high with five RBIs.
Duchscherer came in with a 1.82 ERA
in four starts but allowed four runs and five hits in 3 1/3 innings in
this one, raising his ERA to 2.89.
Notes
Darrin Fletcher was the last
Toronto catcher to hit three homers in a game, doing it Aug. 27, 2000 at
Texas. … An MRI taken Wednesday on Oakland catcher Kurt Suzuki
revealed a strained intercostal muscle in left side, forcing him to miss
his fifth straight game. … The Athletics called up RHP Trevor Cahill
from Triple-A to start against Toronto on Friday in place of LHP Brett
Anderson (elbow).