TORONTO – Adam Lind doesn't just have his confidence back. He's got his home run stroke back, too.
Lind hit two home runs, Yunel Escobar had a tiebreaking double in the seventh inning, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Angels 7-5 on Friday night.
Promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas last Monday after spending more than a month in the minors, Lind hit a three-run homer off Ervin Santana in the third inning, then added a solo drive to left off Hisanori Takahashi in the eighth.
"It's definitely a relief to hit a home run and help the team win," Lind said. "This is the team that I belong with."
Lind's fourth and fifth homers of the season ended a drought dating to May 9 at Oakland, giving him his first multihomer game this season and the eighth of his career.
"He's just in a better place mentally," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. "The struggles that he had earlier in the year were well documented, he needed to get a little bit of a breather to kind of free some things up. The swings we saw tonight are those that we've been accustomed to seeing for a long time.
"More than anything," Farrell added, "it's his overall mentality, attitude, just a better frame of reference, a better level of confidence that he's playing with."
Escobar went 3 for 4 with two RBIs as the Blue Jays snapped a three-game losing streak.
"Yunel had an outstanding game," Farrell said.
Francisco Cordero (3-4) worked two-thirds of an inning for the win and Casey Janssen finished for his ninth save in 10 chances.
The Angels, who had won four straight, lost for just the second time in their past 16 road games.
"We just didn't set the tone early enough on the mound," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
The Angels opened the scoring in the third on Torii Hunter's RBI single, then added one more in the fourth on Erick Aybar's sacrifice fly, a drive to deep center that Colby Rasmus caught up against the wall.
Toronto took the lead with a five-run fourth. Jose Bautista doubled and scored on Edwin Encarnacion's single, with Encarnacion taking second on the throw. Kelly Johnson sacrificed Encarnacion to third and Escobar hit an RBI single. Rajai Davis doubled and Lind followed with a home run off the facing of the second deck in center.
"Probably the last two or three weeks I've been seeing the ball pretty well but there's nothing like doing it here at home," Lind said.
Los Angeles cut it to 5-3 on an RBI double by Albert Pujols in the fifth, then threw out a runner at the plate in the bottom half. Encarnacion was hit by a pitch with two outs and stole second, then tried to score when third baseman Alberto Callaspo couldn't handle Escobar's grounder. Aybar, the shortstop, covered and made a strong throw to the plate, where catcher John Hester tagged out a sliding Encarnacion for the third out.
The Angels tied it in the seventh when Hester drilled a two-run homer off reliever Scott Richmond, his third of the season.
One out later, consecutive singles by Hunter and Pujols put runners at the corners, but Cordero came on and got Kendrys Morales to ground into a double play.
Toronto reclaimed the lead in the bottom half off Jordan Walden (2-2). Encarnacion hit a two-out single and stole second, Johnson walked and Escobar lined a ground-rule double to right.
"It's frustrating, especially to get through Bautista," Walden said. "They have a good lineup."
Lind capped it with a leadoff drive to left in the eighth.
Neither starter figured in the decision. Santana allowed five runs and seven hits in five innings, walked three and struck out two.
Making his first start of the season and his first since August 2011, Toronto right-hander Carlos Villanueva gave up three runs and seven hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out six.
"I felt a little tired," Villanueva said. "Those middle innings I had to work a little harder."
NOTES: Davis stole second base on Hester's return throw to the mound in the sixth. "(Davis) picked their pocket," Scioscia said. ... Angels RHP Jerome Williams (respiratory) will start for Triple-A Salt Lake on Sunday. Williams went on the DL June 19 after suffering an asthma attack following a start against San Francisco. ... Jamie Moyer, the 49-year-old LHP, made his debut with Toronto's Triple-A Las Vegas affiliate Thursday and earned the win by allowing three runs and seven hits in five innings, striking out six. Moyer will start for Las Vegas again next Tuesday, after which the Blue Jays must decide whether to promote him or release him. ... Police and emergency personnel filled the aisle in a section behind Toronto's third base dugout while the Angels batted in the third inning, providing CPR to an elderly male fan. A Blue Jays spokesman said the fan was revived before being carried away on a stretcher.
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