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GAME 14, APRIL 13: JAYS AT INDIANS

RESULT: 8-4 WIN

RECORD: 9-5

STREAK: W1

1. With his balky throwing shoulder still giving him problems, third baseman Josh Donaldson was sent to the 10-day DL on Friday. But instead of being termed dead arm, this time it was back to being shoulder inflammation, which is what they called it in March, and he underwent an MRI on Thursday in Cleveland. No structural damage was found, but Donaldson will now head to Dunedin to rehab the injury. The move was backdated to April 11, allowing Donaldson to return April 21, at the earliest. Aside from the body part, it’s an eerily similar situation to the calf injury he played through during spring training last year, only to aggravate it in April and need an extended DL stint when the games counted.

2. Recalled from Triple-A Buffalo earlier in the day to replace Donaldson on the roster, Teoscar Hernandez wasted no time making an impact, delivering a go-ahead RBI double off Indians lefty Andrew Miller in the seventh inning. The baseball gods were on Hernandez’s side on this night, as it looked like Miller had caught the 25-year-old looking on an 0-2 slider, but he wasn’t rung up and he laced the next pitch into the left field corner to make it 5-4. Hernandez would add another RBI double in the ninth, finishing off the Jays’ binge of eight unanswered runs.

3. After the Jays fell into a 4-0 hole, shortstop Aledmys Diaz had the big knock to get them back into it, hitting a three-run home run to straightaway centre field off Indians starter Mike Clevinger in the fourth inning to erase the deficit. Diaz now has four homers and a 138 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) in 39 plate appearances.

4. It was a battle for Marcus Stroman for the third straight start. Cleveland scored a pair of runs in each of the first two innings, but Stroman was able to grind through the next three frames to give his offence a chance to get back into it. He ended up allowing nine hits, walking two, and striking out five over five innings. Stroman’s night ended at 99 pitches, and he’ll take a 7.98 ERA into his next scheduled start Wednesday at home against the Kansas City Royals.

5. Devon Travis was hit by a Matt Belisle pitch on the hand in the ninth inning, prompting manager John Gibbons to insert Gift Ngoepe as a defensive replacement in the bottom half of the inning. Not only is any potential Travis injury concerning given his history, but now that Solarte is needed full-time at third base with Donaldson out, the Jays are one infield injury away from Ngoepe or Danny Espinosa, who’s at Triple-A, getting everyday at-bats.