Blue Jays notebook: Donaldson's hot bat leads Toronto to victory

Rudi Schuller

Blue Jays notebook: Donaldson's hot bat leads Toronto to victory image

Josh Donaldson hit two home runs and Justin Smoak provided the winning blast as the Toronto Blue Jays outlasted the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 at Rogers Centre on Thursday afternoon.

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Jays reliever Dominic Leone earned the decision and improved to 3-0, while closer Roberto Osuna collected his 32nd save as the Jays (59-62) inched up to three games back in the hotly-contested AL Wild Card race.

Toronto claimed three of the four games against Tampa Bay, and now moves on to a three-game interleague series against the Cubs in Chicago starting Friday.

MORE: AL wild-card race shaping up to be bonkers

Another game, another early Donaldson HR

The third baseman has repeatedly hit first-inning home runs recently, and Thursday's game was no different.

Donaldson has made it a habit of giving Toronto the lead, and his solo shot off Chris Archer put the Jays up 1-0 to give starter Chris Rowley a slight cushion to work with.

While Donaldson has had a knack for early home runs, he added his second solo shot of the game in the bottom of the fifth for good measure. 

The 31-year-old has been on fire of late, and his ability to get extra bases from his at-bats have proved invaluable. Fifteen of Donaldson's last 26 hits have gone for extra bases, a huge weapon for a team trying to claw its way into the playoff picture.

Rays comeback thwarted

As with all the other games in this series, it was a close contest and there was very little to separate the two teams.

Tampa Bay rode an eighth-inning rally to tie things up, but Justin Smoak put the game out of reach in the bottom half of the inning with Donaldson on base.

From there it was Osuna's time to close things out, and the reliever did what he did best to give Toronto another crucial victory.

Rudi Schuller