Toronto, ON – Rajai Davis drove home Yunel Escobar in the bottom of the 10th inning, as the Toronto Blue Jays rallied late and beat the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5, Saturday afternoon.
Philadelphia southpaw Cliff Lee appeared to be closing in on his first win of the season, taking the mound with a 5-2 lead in the eighth.
Jose Bautista worked a leadoff walk and Edwin Encarnacion followed with a single to left field. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins took the relay throw from John Mayberry Jr. and made an errant throw to second that enabled both runners to score.
"It was my fault," said Rollins about the error. "I saw the runner and, you know, just threw it into right field."
Chad Qualls replaced Lee after a single by Kelly Johnson, who advanced to third on a one-out base hit by pinch-hitter David Cooper. J.P. Arencibia then tied the game with a double down the third-base line. Qualls retired the next two batters to end the inning.
In the 10th, losing pitcher Joe Savery (0-2) issued a leadoff walk to Escobar, who took second base on a balk and moved to third on a groundout. After Arencibia struck out swinging, Davis stroked a single to left-center field, sending the Blue Jays to their second win in this three- game series.
Escobar collected three hits, including a solo home run, for Toronto. Starter Ricky Romero gave up four runs on seven hits over six frames, while Francisco Cordero (2-4) was the winning pitcher after firing a scoreless 10th.
"He gave up a few early but still grinded out six solid inning for us and really kept us in the game enough to give us a fighting chance at the end," remarked Blue Jays reliever Casey Janssen about Romero.
Mayberry crushed a three-run homer for the Phillies, who fell to 1-7 on the road in extra innings.
Lee, meanwhile, remains winless through his first 11 starts of the season. He was tagged for five runs on a career-high-tying 12 hits in seven-plus innings.
The Phillies opened the scoring in the first inning when back-to-back one-out doubles by Placido Polanco and Hunter Pence produced a run.
Escobar launched a game-tying blast with two gone in the second, but Philadelphia went ahead 4-1 in the third after squandering a bases-loaded opportunity the previous frame. Shane Victorino and Ty Wigginton hit consecutive two-out singles before Mayberry stroked a line drive homer over the left-field wall.
Toronto strung together three straight one-out singles in the home third, with Davis scoring on Colby Rasmus' base hit to right. After Lee retired Bautista on an infield pop-up, Brett Lawrie was caught stealing home to end the inning.
Rollins doubled home Brian Schneider in the top of the eighth for a three-run advantage.
Game Notes
The Blue Jays registered their 1,000th career win at Rogers Centre...Bautista has reached base safely in 16 straight games...For the third time this week, the Toronto Blue Jays have lost a pitcher to the disabled list. Rookie right- hander Drew Hutchison left Friday's start against Philadelphia after nine pitches with elbow soreness and on Saturday was placed on the 15-day DL with an ulnar collateral ligament sprain. Fellow righties Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek also left starts earlier this week and landed on the DL, Morrow with a strained left oblique and Drabek with ligament damage to his right elbow that could result in a second Tommy John procedure.
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