“It’s always fun,” Giolito said of the matchup. “I knew that Robbie was going to bring some noise tonight. He’s been great all year. So I just had to make sure that I stayed focused, went out there and put up as many zeros as possible. And it ended up being a pretty good pitchers’ duel there.”
The Blue Jays strung together three straight two-out singles against reliever Aaron Bummer in the eighth. The final one by Alejandro Kirk brought home Teoscar Hernández for a 2-1 lead.
“He’s hit the ball really hard,” La Russa said. “But that last pitch, the slider got too much of the plate, and the guy put a good swing on it.