TORONTO -- Kevin Pillar had a chat with slugger Jose Bautista as they practised their swings shortly before the Toronto Blue Jays took on the Minnesota Twins on Monday night.
Brian Orakpo Titans Jersey . Bautista offered some words of encouragement for the backup outfielder and told him to be aggressive at the plate. It proved to be sage advice. Pillar hit a one-out flare to right field off Casey Fien that drove in pinch-runner Erik Kratz with the winning run to give the Blue Jays a 5-4 walkoff victory at Rogers Centre. "It was a slider off the plate and I was just able to nestle it in somewhere," Pillar said. "And it feels good." Earlier in the inning, Pillar made a miscue in left field by diving for Kurt Suzukis sinking liner. He couldnt come up with the ball and it rolled by him, allowing the Twins to move within a run. Eduardo Escobar followed with a blooper off closer Casey Janssen that landed just inside the left-field line and brought Suzuki home with the tying run. "Baseball is a weird game," Pillar said. "You get a chance to make up for a mistake that you made maybe in the previous inning or early in the game. I was fortunate enough to make that happen." Edwin Encarnacion had staked Toronto (39-26) to an early lead with a three-run homer in the first inning off Minnesota starter Ricky Nolasco. Jose Reyes added a solo homer in the fifth inning for the Blue Jays, who lead the major leagues with 91 home runs. With the win, the Blue Jays remained 5 1/2 games ahead of second-place Baltimore in the American League East division standings. The Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-0 Monday. It was Torontos 16th victory in its last 20 games. "Weve been playing good baseball but you still need to win some of those games like that," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "For the longest time, everything has been going our way. Tonight things didnt go our way but we still managed to come out and pull out a nice win." Minnesota (29-33) scored a pair of quick runs off Toronto starter R.A. Dickey before many fans had taken their seats on a glorious spring evening. Danny Santana hit his first career leadoff home run and Brian Dozier followed with a rainbow shot just inside the foul pole in left field. Dickey settled down after that, retiring 11 straight batters at one point before Josh Willinghams triple in the sixth inning. The Twins loaded the bases but Dustin McGowan came on and got Trevor Plouffe to ground into a double play to end the threat. Janssen (1-0), who blew his second save of the season, gave up three hits in the ninth inning. With the crowd deflated after the Twins tied the game, Minnesota pitcher Matt Guerrier (0-1) walked Dioner Navarro to open the bottom of the ninth. Kratz came in to pinch-run, moved to second on a Reyes single and then scored with room to spare. "You walk the leadoff guy, you give yourself pretty much a mess and anything can happen after that," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. Pillar, who entered the game in the ninth as a defensive replacement for Melky Cabrera, said his defensive miscue was on his mind when he came to the plate. Thinking about his chat with Bautista, Pillar swung and missed the first two times before making contact. "Its a huge roller-coaster of emotions right there," he said. "I guess thats baseball. Theres a lot of ups and downs. You have to find a way to get back centred and deal with the task at hand." Notes: Encarnacion leads the Blue Jays with 20 homers this season. Reyes now has four homers this year. Dozier has 13 home runs while Santana has gone deep twice. ... Dickey allowed five hits, two earned runs, two walks and had three strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. ... Nolasco allowed seven hits, four earned runs and a pair of walks. He had six strikeouts. ... Morales signed a one-year, prorated contract Sunday. The Cuban slugger hit .277 with 23 homers and 80 RBIs with Seattle last season. ... The Twins have hit four leadoff home runs this season. ... Toronto southpaw J.A. Happ is scheduled to start Tuesday night against right-hander Kevin Correia. ... The teams will wrap up the series Wednesday with an early afternoon game. ... Bautista has reached base safely in 62 of 65 games this season. ... Announced attendance was 19,428. The game took two hours 53 minutes to play.
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Earl Campbell Titans Jersey . And thats quite a turnaround from how things seemed less than a week ago. LeBron James fought through a sore back to score 32 points, Chris Bosh added 18 and the Heat used another strong defensive effort to beat the Toronto Raptors 93-83 on Monday night.Doha, Qatar (SportsNetwork.com) - Branden Grace picked up five strokes over the final seven holes on Saturday and fended off Marc Warren to win the Qatar Masters. Grace fired a bogey-free, 6-under 66 to end at 19-under-par 269. The South African, who won for the sixth time on the European Tour, raised his record to 6-0 when owning at least a piece of the 54-hole lead. It was a great day, it was a great week. Its another great trophy to put in the cupboard, Grace said. I got off to great start today, then I fell a bit asleep. Warren closed with a his second straight 67 to end one back at minus-18. He had shared the third-round lead with Grace, Bernd Wiesberger and Emiliano Grillo. Wiesberger posted a 4-under 68 and ended alone in third at 17-under-par 271, while Eddie Pepperell (67) took fourth at minus-16. Grillo managed a 2-under 70 in the final round at Doha Golf Club and finished at 15-under 273. He was joined there by Byeong-hun An and Gregory Bourdy, who both fired 65s in the final round. Alejandro Canizares (69) took eighth at minus-14 and Alexander Noren (65) was one stroke further back at 13-under 275. Grace birdied the first, but followed that with 10 consecutive pars. In that span, he varied from one behind to tied for the lead. Late in Graces run of pars, there was a brief seven-way tie for the lead at minus-14. Wiesberger, who was paired with Grace in the final round, dropped in three straight birdies froom the 10th to break free from that pack and move to 16-under.
Karl Klug Titans Jersey. Grace matched Wiesbergers birdie at the 12th. Wiesberger ran off five pars in a row from No. 13 to stay at minus-16. After a par on 13, Grace grabbed a share of the lead as he birdied the 14th. At the short par-4 16th, Graces drive stopped five feet from the hole. The South African poured that in for eagle. Now two clear of the field, Grace parred the 17th and that allowed Warren to join him at minus-18 as Warren birdied the 16th and 17th. Grace answered at the par-5 closing hole. His third shot rolled over the left edge of the hole and stopped three feet from the cup. He kicked that in for a closing birdie and 19-under. The form has been there, and I stuck to my routine this week and I played great, and I managed to come out on top, said Grace. Warren, who was in the final group, had a 25-foot putt to force a playoff, but it stayed above ground. NOTES: Grace earned 353,257 euros for the win ... Grace won in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and has won two of the last four European Tour events ... Henrik Stenson, the 2006 champion, fired a 66 to finish tied for 13th, while Justin Rose carded a 68 to end alongside Stenson at minus-10 ... Last years winner Sergio Garcia closed with a 3-under 69 and ended in a tie for 46th ... Stephen Gallacher is expected to defend his title next week at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
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