CLEVELAND (AP) — Jose Bautista hit a two-run double to help the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Cleveland Indians 7-1 on Sunday and head to the All-Star break with a three-game winning streak.

Brett Cecil (2-4) gave up one unearned run over six innings for his first win in three starts since being recalled from the minors June 30. The left-hander allowed six hits and walked three. He struck out six, got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, and stranded nine runners overall.

Eric Thames’ two-run homer in a five-run third off Carlos Carrasco (8-6) put the Blue Jays ahead.

Toronto moved within two games of .500 and have Bautista going to the All-Star Game as baseball’s home run leader with 31 — along with 65 RBIs and a .334 average.

Cleveland has lost four of six and despite a lineup hit hard by injuries, remain in a battle with Detroit for the AL Central lead. They entered play Sunday a half game ahead of the Tigers. The last time Cleveland was in first place at the break was 1999, when they went on to win their fifth straight division title.

Thames followed a single by Yunel Escobar with his fourth homer for a 2-0 lead. Carrasco held Bautista — who had three homers in his previous two games — to a rare opposite-field single hit where the second baseman normally would have been stationed if not in a shift against the pull-hitting slugger. Bautista got to third on a pair of groundouts before Carrasco walked Travis Snider and gave up an RBI single on the first pitch to J.P. Arencibia that made it 3-0.

After pitching coach Tim Belcher went to the mound to try and settle Carrasco, the right-hander wild pitched the runners to second and third, and Corey Patterson hit a ground-rule double into the seats in right-center for a 5-0 lead.

Carrasco released some frustration when he got Rajai Davis to bounce back to him to end the inning. Carrasco barehanded the ball, then fired it hard, forcing first baseman Carlos Santana to make a lunging stab of the near-errant throw.

It was the second consecutive rough outing for Carrasco following a 7-2 stretch over nine starts. The Blue Jays scored five runs on seven hits in three innings against him. On Tuesday, he allowed six runs and 10 hits in four innings to the New York Yankees.

Bautista’s two-run double off Rafael Perez made it 7-0 in the sixth. Continued…

Jack Hannahan had an RBI single in the bottom half for Cleveland.

Joe Smith worked a scoreless seventh for the Indians. He has not allowed an earned run in his last 25 outings, covering 23 2-3 innings since May 12.

Notes: Cleveland stranded 13 overall and went 3 of 12 with runners in scoring position. … Jays LHP Luis Perez struck out Travis Hafner on four pitches in seventh. On Thursday, Hafner hit the first pitch from the rookie for a walkoff grand slam. … Jays manager John Farrell is encouraged by the progress of two pitchers on the disabled list. RHP Casey Janssen, out since June 15 with a strained right forearm, worked a scoreless inning at Double-A New Hampshire, hit 92 mph on the radar gun, and is scheduled for another rehab outing Monday. Jesse Litsch, out since May 20 with a sore shoulder, yielded 12 hits over four innings at Triple-A Las Vegas. Farrell said Litsch is “physically fine” and will start again Friday.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Jose Bautista hit a two-run double to help the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Cleveland Indians 7-1 on Sunday and head to the All-Star break with a three-game winning streak.

Brett Cecil (2-4) gave up one unearned run over six innings for his first win in three starts since being recalled from the minors June 30. The left-hander allowed six hits and walked three. He struck out six, got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, and stranded nine runners overall.

Eric Thames’ two-run homer in a five-run third off Carlos Carrasco (8-6) put the Blue Jays ahead.

Toronto moved within two games of .500 and have Bautista going to the All-Star Game as baseball’s home run leader with 31 — along with 65 RBIs and a .334 average.

Cleveland has lost four of six and despite a lineup hit hard by injuries, remain in a battle with Detroit for the AL Central lead. They entered play Sunday a half game ahead of the Tigers. The last time Cleveland was in first place at the break was 1999, when they went on to win their fifth straight division title.

Thames followed a single by Yunel Escobar with his fourth homer for a 2-0 lead. Carrasco held Bautista — who had three homers in his previous two games — to a rare opposite-field single hit where the second baseman normally would have been stationed if not in a shift against the pull-hitting slugger. Bautista got to third on a pair of groundouts before Carrasco walked Travis Snider and gave up an RBI single on the first pitch to J.P. Arencibia that made it 3-0.

After pitching coach Tim Belcher went to the mound to try and settle Carrasco, the right-hander wild pitched the runners to second and third, and Corey Patterson hit a ground-rule double into the seats in right-center for a 5-0 lead.

Carrasco released some frustration when he got Rajai Davis to bounce back to him to end the inning. Carrasco barehanded the ball, then fired it hard, forcing first baseman Carlos Santana to make a lunging stab of the near-errant throw.

It was the second consecutive rough outing for Carrasco following a 7-2 stretch over nine starts. The Blue Jays scored five runs on seven hits in three innings against him. On Tuesday, he allowed six runs and 10 hits in four innings to the New York Yankees.

Bautista’s two-run double off Rafael Perez made it 7-0 in the sixth.

Jack Hannahan had an RBI single in the bottom half for Cleveland.

Joe Smith worked a scoreless seventh for the Indians. He has not allowed an earned run in his last 25 outings, covering 23 2-3 innings since May 12.

Notes: Cleveland stranded 13 overall and went 3 of 12 with runners in scoring position. … Jays LHP Luis Perez struck out Travis Hafner on four pitches in seventh. On Thursday, Hafner hit the first pitch from the rookie for a walkoff grand slam. … Jays manager John Farrell is encouraged by the progress of two pitchers on the disabled list. RHP Casey Janssen, out since June 15 with a strained right forearm, worked a scoreless inning at Double-A New Hampshire, hit 92 mph on the radar gun, and is scheduled for another rehab outing Monday. Jesse Litsch, out since May 20 with a sore shoulder, yielded 12 hits over four innings at Triple-A Las Vegas. Farrell said Litsch is “physically fine” and will start again Friday.

TORONTO — The early-season focus has been on the revolving rotation and the long list of walking wounded. But the Toronto Blue Jays are finishing April with another glaring problem: they are not hitting.

And again Sunday, they were not hitting for Ricky Romero.

In a 2-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Romero allowed five hits and struck out 10 in seven innings. His only mistake came in the first inning, when Ben Zobrist hit a two-run homer.

But the Jays’ hitters scuffled all afternoon against Rays starter James Shields, who gave up four hits and allowed only two runners to reach second base in a complete-game session.

In his past four starts, Romero has received four runs of support. He lowered his ERA to 3.00 on Sunday but his record fell to 1-3.

“The old adage is, you pitch on the wrong days at some point,” Jays manager John Farrell said.

But Farrell also said impatience is hurting his hitters. Shields averaged just 10.5 pitches per inning. That added up to too many quick outs, Farrell said.

“There’s been some times where we’ve been overaggressive on one-, two-pitch outs. It allows that starter to get into the eighth inning, fairly routine,” he said.

The Jays finished their homestand with a 2-3 record. Monday night in Texas, they open their second 10-game, 11-day road trip of the young season.

After the game Sunday, Toronto placed second baseman Aaron Hill (hamstring strain) on the disabled list, retroactive to last Wednesday, and announced the recall of Jesse Litsch, who will start Tuesday night in Texas.

They already had Rajai Davis and Jayson Nix on the DL and were missing Edwin Encarnacion, whose sore wrist puts him in the day-to-day category.

“We’ve faced a number of challenges,” Farrell said. “The road is one of them. Injuries are another. Fluctuating performance is another.”

Except for a few brief outbursts, only Jose Bautista has been hitting consistently for the Jays in recent weeks. Bautista entered Sunday’s game having reached base in 10 straight plate appearances, a stretch that included three homers.

He walked his first time up on Sunday. The streak ended in his next at-bat when he scorched a line drive to third base. Bautista later struck out, and walked again.

After Bautista walked in the ninth inning, Shields picked him off first base.

Bautista said he was not about to steal, but tried to get a good secondary lead so he could break up a double-play on a ground ball. But as he took an extra step, Shields spun and cut him down.

“It’s totally my fault and I’m going to try to not let it happen again,” he said.

Bautista acknowledged the pressure that is building on the offence, caused in part by a string of solid opposing pitchers in recent games.

The Jays (9-12) have played tight games all season, with 14 of 21 decided by one or two runs. They had not been shut out until Sunday.

“It’s not like we’re getting our butts beat by five or six runs on a daily basis,” Bautista said. “We have to pick it up on offence a little bit because our pitching’s doing a great job of giving us chances to win.”

The Jays batted .216 in the weekend series. For the season, they are hitting .245, a middle-of-the-pack figure. But except for Bautista, the regulars are sinking.

Corey Patterson is 1-for-17, Travis Snider 4-for-25, J.P. Arencibia 3-for-22, Yunel Escobar 6-for-40 and Adam Lind 6-for-33.

After the Zobrist homer, Romero dominated the Rays, retiring 18 of the last 19 batters he faced. In four of his five starts, he has pitched six or more innings.

In the usual manner of the hard-luck pitcher, he refused to place any blame on his hitters.

“We lose together just like we’re going to win together,” he said. “We’re going to be fine.”

Four upcoming games in Texas and three apiece in New York and Tampa could say a lot about the accuracy of that prediction.

National Post

jlott@nationalpost.com

Twitter.com/LottOnBaseball

© Copyright (c) National Post

Tuesday is a red-letter day for the Toronto Blue Jays. Frank Francisco is scheduled to be examined by orthopedic surgeon James Andrews for a second opinion on his sore right pectoral, and Octavio Dotel is scheduled to pitch in a minor-league game. If opening day was Monday … ladies and gentlemen, meet your closer: Jon Rauch.

More related to this story

“Tuesday or Wednesday would be a good mark on the calendar,” manager John Farrell said. “At that point in time, we’ll know if we need a Plan B [Rauch]. But we want to make sure we’re doing the right thing by Frankie.”

A magnetic resonance imaging test on Francisco last Friday was clean, but Francisco reported more soreness after a bullpen session on Saturday. Asked if he was concerned that he might have traded for damaged goods when he acquired Francisco from the Texas Rangers last January, Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos replied in an e-mail: “No, sir. MRI is clean. Just peace of mind.”

Meanwhile, it’s down to Jesse Litsch, Kyle Drabek and Jo-Jo Reyes for the final two spots in the Blue Jays rotation. Litsch struck out seven Sunday in a 3-0 win over the Minnesota Twins and Drabek will pitch in a minor-league game Monday. Reyes draws the New York Yankees on Wednesday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field – Brandon Morrow will pitch in a minor-league game, which tells you who needs to make the biggest impression. Marc Rzepczynski will need to make the team out of the bullpen, and there are those in the organization who have felt for some time that his repertoire (sinker and slider) is tailor-made to eventually replace Scott Downs. Rzepczynski’s fastball is a little short, but it’s okay for one or two innings and his arm is low maintenance. This is, frankly, his career path.

“His stuff plays up better in shorter stints,” Farrell said. Indeed it does.

DOCTOR BAGS PACKED?

Steve Yzerman doesn’t appear to be one of those former NHL players who will heal just because Gary Bettman tugs on his leash. While nobody will ever call the Tampa Bay Lightning general manager a revolutionary, there is an inordinate amount of validity to his wondering about the league’s new concussion protocol placing the fate of a player, ultimately, in a doctor employed by the home team. Yzerman doesn’t want to besmirch the integrity of any doctor (although a team physician’s loyalty is often debated) but he is wondering openly whether we haven’t arrived at a time when teams need to travel with their own doctor.

CLEANING UP

Going into a Grapefruit League game Monday against the Atlanta Braves, Jason Bay of Trail, B.C., has no home runs and just one double in 33 at-bats during spring training, with 11 strikeouts and one walk. Yes, he’s hitting .303 but there’s real concern around the New York Mets about Bay, who missed the last two months of the season with a concussion after having his home run rate drop to one homer per 58 at-bats last season from one in 14.6 in 2009. … According to scuttlebutt in Florida, the Tampa Bay Rays have lost too many relievers and too much offensively to prevent a deep fall in the American League East. … If you’re looking for something that might separate the Anaheim Ducks from the pack of teams jockeying for the last playoff spot in the NHL’s Western Conference, it ought to be their 24-8-5 record in one-goal games going into Sunday. … Whatever happens in the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament, or the looming NBA lockout, it doesn’t look as if freshman star Tristan Thompson from Brampton, Ont., will be leaving the University of Texas early for the NBA. Thompson told the Kansas City Star that he wants to come back and play with Myck Kabongo. Kabongo, who is from Toronto, played at Findlay Prep, the same Henderson, Nev., school as Thompson and has committed to Texas. “Our team next year, if everyone comes back, we’ll be dangerous – more than we are now. All right, I’ll just say it: I’m coming back another year.”

QUOTABLE

“I got asked the usual question: ‘Do you feel good enough to score from second base on a single?’ I asked them: ‘Who’s the centre fielder?’ Probably not what they wanted to hear.” ~Aaron Hill

The Toronto Blue Jays second baseman gave a tongue-in-cheek update Sunday before packing up his equipment bag and trudging over to the club’s minor-league complex to play four innings in the field and get four at-bats. Hill, who has been hampered by a quadriceps strain, is scheduled to make his first appearance of the spring in a Grapefruit League game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday – 10 days before opening day.

TAMPA, Fla. — Toronto Blue Jays reliever Frank Francisco has been scratched from a minor-league appearance Sunday because of ongoing discomfort in his right pectoral muscle.

Toronto manager John Farrell said Saturday the right-hander still felt some felt discomfort during a bullpen session. Farrell is hopeful Francisco will be ready for opening day.

Octavio Dotel, who was out with a hamstring injury, had a mound session. His status will be re-evaluated Sunday.

DUNEDIN, Florida — After his manager denied he was hurt, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Travis Snider revealed Sunday that he has been held out of workouts for the past week because of a rib-cage injury suffered while playing golf.

In a media scrum a few minutes earlier, manager John Farrell alluded vaguely to Snider missing drills because of “a little bit of tightness in his overall core.”

Asked if the tightness was the result of an injury, Farrell replied: “No, no, no. Just bringing him along a little slower.”

But after undergoing treatment in the trainer’s room, Snider told reporters he “tweaked something” in his left upper rib cage while playing golf about a week ago. It did not bother him immediately, he said, but tightened up the next day.

Both Snider, the Jays’ starting left-fielder, and Farrell suggested the injury was relatively minor. The 23-year-old said his condition has improved, but “not significantly,” and he can neither swing nor throw at the moment.

“We don’t expect him to be way behind or certainly not delayed,” Farrell said.

With 50-plus players spread over five diamonds at the Jays spring complex, and relatively few sessions of outdoor batting practice, Snider’s inactivity went unnoticed by reporters. He’s joined his teammates during group discussions on the field and on Sunday he took his turn standing in a batter’s box without swinging, like all other hitters, while pitchers each got a 25-pitch workout.

When Farrell met the media after Sunday’s workouts, he was asked whether any players were nursing injuries, a common question during spring training. Farrell mentioned that reliever Frank Francisco, at his own request, is working at a slower pace than the other pitchers in the early going.

Francisco is not injured but has always preferred to build up his arm slowly, Farrell said.

“Everything else that we’ve been dealing with is the same,” Farrell said. “Snider’s shown steady improvement. There’s some resistance testing that he’s going through and he’s responding well to that. We haven’t turned him loose yet as far as beginning a hitting progression, but the fact that he’s making progress is certainly encouraging.”

That was the first time since camp opened that Farrell had mentioned Snider’s irregular regimen.

Snider said the medical staff have told him that he has irritation in an intercostal muscle which requires rest and regular icing.

“It’s unfortunate but I think from a timing standpoint right now time’s on my side and hopefully this thing is short-term,” Snider said.

Considered a cornerstone of the Jays’ offence this season, Snider suffered a sprained wrist last May 14 and missed 2 1⁄2 months. He finished the season batting .255 with 14 homers and 32 RBIs in 82 games.

National Post

jlott@nationalpost.com

© Copyright (c) National Post

In Pictures

Globe and Mail Update

Published Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011 8:02PM EST

Last updated Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011 8:03PM EST

A photographic look at the start of spring training for the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla.

Toronto reliever Carlos Villanueva, here watching a home run clear the fence last season as a Milwaukee Brewer, signed a one-year deal with the Jays on Sunday, avoiding arbitration. (Morry Gash/Associated Press file)

Reliever Carlos Villanueva and the Toronto Blue Jays avoided arbitration Sunday by agreeing to terms on a $1.415-million US, one-year contract.

Villanueva, 28, was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers on Dec. 3 in exchange for a player to be named later. He posted a 2-0 record with one save and 14 holds in 50 appearances for the Brewers last season.

The Blue Jays have eight players who have filed for salary arbitration. The team hasn’t gone to a hearing with a player since reliever Bill Risley in 1997.