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Home runs by Smoak, Donaldson lift Blue Jays to 5-3 win over Rays

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TORONTO — Justin Smoak blasted a two-run homer in the eighth inning to lift the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday.

Smoak's 413-foot bomb to deep right field drove in Josh Donaldson and restored the lead to the Blue Jays (59-62) after they had coughed it up in the top of the inning. Toronto finished its 10-game homestand with seven wins.

Donaldson remained one of the hottest bats in the American League, hitting two solo home runs to give Toronto an early lead.

He now has six homers in his past five games. Nine of his 18 home runs this season have come in August, with 21 runs batted in and a .400 batting average.

Chris Rowley (1-0) pitched five innings for the Blue Jays, striking out three and allowing four hits and five walks in just his second career MLB start. Aaron Loup, Danny Barnes, Tim Mayza and Dominic Leone came in from the bullpen, with Roberto Osuna earning his 32nd save of the season.

Leone earned the win as the pitcher of record when Smoak hit his go-ahead homer.

Chris Archer (8-7) struck out 10, including the 1,000th strikeout of his career, giving up five hits and three earned runs over seven innings. His impressive performance for Tampa Bay (60-63) was wasted when reliever Tommy Hunter gave up Smoak's home run.

Donaldson put the Blue Jays on the board early, putting a solo shot over the left-field fence in the first inning, bringing the sold-out crowd of 46,855 at Rogers Centre to their feet.

Smoak added to that lead in the third with an RBI single to right field. That brought home Darwin Barney who had reached first on a wild pitch after striking out and then advanced on Nori Aoki's single.

Smith chipped away at Toronto's lead with an stand-up triple that drove in Adeiny Hechavarria in the top of the fourth.

In the fourth inning, Archer struck out Blue Jays catcher Miguel Montero, his eighth of the game and 1,000th in his career. He joined Kerry Wood, Tim Lincecum, Rogers Clemens, Stephen Strasburg, Dwight Gooden, Hideo Nomo, Corey Kluber and Randy Johnson with 1,000 Ks in first 154 games or fewer.

Donaldson got his second homer of the day in the fifth inning, bouncing the ball off the first deck to make it 3-1. It was his 13th career multi-homer game and third of the season.

Wilson Ramos brought the Rays to within one again in the sixth. With the bases loaded and one out, he scored from third on a fielder's choice hit by Brad Miller. Although Loup had loaded the bases and Barnes was on the mound when the run scored, it was charged to Rowley who had walked Ramos to start the inning.

Evan Longoria tied it 3-3 in the eighth, driving a double off the wall in centre field to cash in pinch runner Peter Bourjos. Toronto outfielder Ezequiel Carerra tracked the ball to the warning track and jumped to catch it, but the ball missed his glove and bounced off the wall and then his back before he could recover it, giving Bourjos ample time to reach home plate.

After Aoki popped out to start the eighth, Donaldson drew a walk to bring Smoak to the plate. The crowd, still hyped after Donaldson's at bat, exploded after the ball sailed well clear of the outfield wall.

Osuna then induced a 6-4-3 double play before getting a ground out to complete the win.

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Follow @jchidleyhill on Twitter

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press


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