Estrada goes eight, Donaldson homers twice as Jays beat Twins

Marco Estrada pitched eight efficient innings, Josh Donaldson homered twice among his four hits and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins 7-2 on Saturday night.

Minnesota’s loss clinched the AL Central for the Cleveland Indians and gave teams a chance to gain on the Twins for the final AL wild card. Minnesota entered the day two games ahead of the Angels.

Estrada (9-8) allowed two solo homers and extended his string of allowing three earned runs or fewer to nine of his last 11 outings.

Jose Bautista ended his 0-for-17 skid with three hits and an RBI for Toronto.

Donaldson gave the Blue Jays a lead in the first by sending a first-pitch shot off Adalberto Mejia (4-6) into the second deck in left-centre.

Making his first start since a biceps injury last month sidelined him for 35 games, Mejia seemed to recover after Donaldson’s homer and retired eight straight batters. But Donaldson led off the fourth with a single and came around to score on Bautista’s single. A batter later, Kendrys Morales drove in Justin Smoak with a single.

Estrada took care of the rest, retiring 12 of his final 15 batters after Eddie Rosario’s homer in the fifth, inducing a handful of harmless pop flies. He allowed three hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Matt Dermody pitched a scoreless ninth for Toronto.

The Blue Jays broke it open in the eighth by stringing together four singles and a walk against Trever Hildenberger. Bautista and Morales each had RBIs, and Donaldson scored a run on a throwing error by Brian Dozier to make it 6-1.

Eduardo Escobar led off the eighth with a solo homer, but manager John Gibbons allowed Estrada to finish the inning. Donaldson got the run back with a one-out homer to centre in the ninth.

TRAINER’S ROOM:

Twins: Manager Paul Molitor said the plan is keep Miguel Sano (shin) in Minnesota when the team starts a 10-game trip in New York next week. Molitor added it’s possible the first baseman may need to go to New York for a personal reason. “It just hasn’t been a great week,” the manager said of Sano’s slow recovery.

UP NEXT:

Blue Jays: RHP Joe Biagini (3-10) returns to the mound after throwing a career-high eight innings on Tuesday in a 3-2 win against Baltimore.

Twins: RHP Kyle Gibson (10-10) tries to even the four-game series. He last pitched against Toronto on Aug. 27, when he threw 6 2/3 innings and gave up two runs on seven hits in Minnesota’s 7-2 victory.