Bautista homers as Jays win 7-4 over Phillies

Newly named all-star Jose Bautista blasted his major league-leading 27th home run and the Toronto Blue Jays cooled off Phillies lefty Cliff Lee with a 7-4 win over Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon.

Lee’s day unravelled in the eighth when Eric Thames tied the game with a no-doubt solo shot over the centre-field wall on the first pitch he saw.

That set up Bautista’s heroics when he blasted Lee’s 2-1 fastball to his usual sweet spot over the left field wall, sending the 26,204 at Rogers Centre into a frenzy.

Adam Lind singled, Juan Rivera went deep on a 91 m.p.h. fastball and all of a sudden the Blue Jays had a three-run cushion.

That brought out the hook for Lee as Phillies manager Charlie Manuel replaced him with Michael Stutes.

Lee (9-6), who heading into the game was riding a tremendous hot streak having surrendered a measly one earned run over his last five outings (42 innings), was tagged for 10 hits and seven runs (six earned) over 7 1-3 innings. He struck out nine and walked none.

Over five starts in June, Lee was 5-0 and hadn’t loss since May 31 at Washington.

Reyes, looking for his first career victory against Philadelphia, finished with eight hits and four runs through six innings of work. He walked two batters and didn’t register a single strikeout.

The Jays made it 4-3 in the sixth when Bautista started a rally with a rocket through the gap between second and third. Adam Lind pushed him to third with a single before Rivera pumped one to centre field that didn’t look deep enough to score Bautista on a sac fly. However, when Shane Victorino tried to make the throw home to hold Bautista, the Phillies outfielder stumbled awkwardly before doing a face plant that allowed the Jays star to score.

Victorino would stay in the game and hit a double to the right field corner off left-handed reliever Marc Rzepczynski the following inning. Octavio Dotel (2-1) came in to pitch 1 1-3 innings to pick up the win.

Lee had already whiffed eight batters, including catcher J.P. Arencibia who started off the inning, by the time Rajai Davis reached first with a base hit in the fifth. The quick-footed outfielder proceeded to swipe second and third before Aaron Hill’s RBI single halved Philadelphia’s lead.

After Lee struck out the side in the second, Davis started the third by grooving the first pitch he saw deep into right centre for a triple. John McDonald got him home with a groundout to short, snapping Lee’s 34-inning shutout streak — second longest in Phillies history — while shaving a run off the Blue Jays’ deficit to make it 4-1.

Reyes started well with a three-up, three-down first inning but got into trouble quickly in the second. Victorino lined a double down the left-field line that a fan got a piece of and then Ben Francisco drilled a single to centre, giving the speedy outfielder time to round third and come home.

Right-fielder Domonic Brown then singled on an 0-1 pitch to the exact same centre field spot, pushing Francisco to second.

That set up catcher Carlos Ruiz’s ground rule double to deep left, bringing home Francisco and loading the bases with one out. Reyes got third baseman Wilson Valdez to foul out, but Jimmy Rollins caused some damage when he singled in Brown and Ruiz, and the Jays were down 4-0 before designated hitter Placido Polanco popped out to end the inning.

Lee was vying to become the first pitcher in more than 22 years to fire four consecutive shutouts. No pitcher has had four in a row since the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Orel Hershiser threw five consecutive from Sept. 5-23, 1988. Prior to this streak, Lee had thrown only one shutout in his previous 37 starts including the playoffs.