Matt LaPorta hits three-run homer in eight-run third inning as Indians beat Jays

First baseman Matt LaPorta hit a three-run home run in an eight-run third inning as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 13-9 on Wednesday.

Cleveland (33-20), which has the best record in the American League, belted out 18 hits against seven Blue Jays pitchers including three doubles and a single by shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who drove in three runs for the game.

Blue Jays starter Kyle Drabek (3-4) did not survive the first inning, allowing three doubles, three walks and four runs in two-thirds of an inning, his shortest major-league outing.

Cleveland’s designated hitter Grady Sizemore, drove in three runs with a first-inning double as the Indians took the rubber match of the three-game series with the Blue Jays (28-28) who committed two errors during the third inning.

Toronto centre-fielder Rajai Davis drove in three runs with his first homer of the season in the sixth and added another RBI with a triple in the fifth.

Cleveland starter Josh Tomlin (7-2) struck out a career-best seven but allowed eight hits and six runs in six innings.

The Blue Jays, who were down 12-0 after three innings, fought back to within four runs after Jose Bautista’s two-run single in the ninth against Rafael Perez. But Vinnie Pestano closed out the game.

Shawn Camp allowed six hits and seven runs (six earned) in 1 2/3 innings, including LaPorta’s seventh homer of the season, and did not survive the third. Cabrera hit a two-run double in the inning and Adam Everett chipped in with an RBI single.

Jason Frasor replaced Camp in the third and allowed one hit and one unearned run in two-thirds of an inning. Davis, on a flyball, and shortstop Yunel Escobar, on a pop up, made errors in the inning with Frasor pitching. Escobar also had his 12-game game hit streak come to an end.

Toronto scored three runs in the fifth with three consecutive triples by Eric Thames, Davis and Jayson Nix and a single by Corey Patterson. It is the first time a team has hit consecutive triples in an inning since the Montreal Expos did it against the San Diego Padres on May 6, 1981.

Bautista who entered Wednesday’s game leading the majors with 20 home runs, was the top overall vote-getter — 1,261,659 — in the first American League balloting figures for the July 12 all-star game at Chase Field.

“I’m really excited by that,” Bautista said before Wednesday’s game against Cleveland. “Hopefully I’ll get the start. Hopefully I get that No. 1 vote-getter or whatever. Knowing that there are markets that really push for these votings, knowing that the Yankees and some guys in L.A. and Texas and Chicago, the coverage is in bigger markets, I wasn’t expecting it at all.”

NOTES: Attendance at Rogers Centre was 15,397. …X-rays showed that Blue Jays third-base prospect Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C. had a bruised left hand after being hit by a pitch on Tuesday while playing for triple-A Las Vegas. He is listed as day to day. …Blue Jays first baseman Adam Lind (lower back) was the designated hitter for Class A Dunedin on Wednesday on his minor-league rehabilitation assignment. He is scheduled to be DH again Thursday for Dunedin and then play a game at first base on Friday before returning to the Blue Jays during their series in Baltimore. … Pitchers in the starting rotation will go in their usual order despite Thursday’s day off in the schedule, which means right-hander Carlos Villanueva (2-0, 2.62 earned-run average) will start Friday in Baltimore against left-hander Zach Britton (5-3, 2.93 ERA).