Slumping Tigers battered by Encarnacion, Blue Jays 15-1
TORONTO (AP) -- Amid a run of rotten results, this was a new low for the reeling Detroit Tigers.
Edwin Encarnacion hit three home runs and tied a Toronto record with nine RBIs as the high-scoring Blue Jays routed Detroit 15-1 Saturday.
"That was definitely embarrassing," manager Brad Ausmus said. "No question about it."
Reliever Alex Wilson, who surrendered a grand slam to Encarnacion, did question his skipper's choice of words.
"I would never say it's embarrassing," Wilson said. "I would say it's tough, it's not fun, it's a bad day, but I'll never use the word embarrassing because we're out there trying hard."
In either case, the Tigers have dropped eight of nine.
"I think we've been playing the game decent, we've just come out on the rough end of things," said starter Buck Farmer, who allowed six runs and eight hits in four innings.
Nothing was decent for Detroit in this one -- the Tigers couldn't even keep track of the number of outs.
Josh Donaldson wound up with a sacrifice fly when Ryan Goins scored from second base on a routine play in the fourth. Center fielder Anthony Gose caught Donaldson's one-out fly and jogged along the warning track, thinking the inning was over, while Goins kept running.
"It's not something you want to see," Ausmus said of Gose's gaffe. "There's really nothing you can say to him, he knows he screwed up."
Encarnacion extended his hitting streak to 24 games, the longest in the majors this season, with a three-run homer off Farmer (0-3) in the first.
"He was hot before we got here and he certainly hasn't cooled off," Ausmus said.
Encarnacion hit a two-run shot off Guido Knudson in the sixth, then connected for a grand slam against Wilson in the seventh as the AL East leaders battered away.
The game was paused briefly after Encarnacion's slam as fans rained caps onto the outfield to honor the homer hat trick.
Gibbons was a little confused at first when the hats started flying.
"I hadn't seen it before," Gibbons said. "Don't they normally throw octopus or something?"
Staff collected the hats and put them in a bag for Encarnacion, who posed for a photo with his haul and posted it to Instagram.
"I'm maybe going to sign them and give them back to their owners for appreciation for throwing them on the field," he said.
Encarnacion was left on deck for the final out in the eighth, costing him a chance to match the major league mark for home runs in a game.
Roy Howell was the last Blue Jays player with nine RBIs in a game, doing it against the New York Yankees on Sept. 10, 1977, Toronto's debut season.
Encarnacion hit his third slam of the season, matching the club record shared by Carlos Delgado and Darrin Fletcher.
This was Encarnacion's fourth multihomer game this year and the 21st of his career. He finished 3 for 5 and scored four times, and boosted his season totals to 29 homers and 90 RBIs.
Encarnacion's hitting streak is the longest in the majors since Colorado's Nolan Arenado had a 28-game run last year. The Toronto slugger is batting 36 for 90 (.400) with 10 homers and 34 RBIs over the streak.
Russell Martin added a two-run homer for the high-scoring Blue Jays. Donaldson doubled, singled twice and drove in two runs, giving him a major league-leading 104 RBIs.
The Blue Jays have scored 10 or more runs in 21 games this year. They have totaled 709 runs this season - the Yankees began the day second in the majors with 604.
Ben Revere had four hits and Justin Smoak reached base four times as Toronto won for the seventh time in eight games and improved to 20-5 in August, matching a club record for wins in a month.
Drew Hutchison (13-2) won his fourth straight start, improving to 11-1 with an 2.46 ERA in 14 home outings.
BETTER THAN AVERAGE
Detroit's Miguel Cabrera went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts but collected enough at bats to qualify for the AL batting average lead. Cabrera is batting .361, well ahead of Cleveland's Jason Kipnis, who entered play Saturday batting .324.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Tigers: OF J.D. Martinez got the day off, while Cabrera started at DH.
UP NEXT
Tigers: RHP Alfredo Simon (11-8, 4.89 ERA) gave up a season-high eight runs on nine hits, four walks and three run-scoring wild pitches against the Angels in his latest start.
Blue Jays: LHP Mark Buehrle (13-6, 3.60 ERA) has allowed nine runs and 14 hits, including three home runs, over 10 innings in his past two starts after winning his four previous decisions.
