TORONTO — Don’t look now but that scary batting order Blue Jays fans fell in love with a year ago seems to be resurfacing.
And that’s without a healthy Jose Bautista.
The Jays put the boots to 2014 Cy Young winner Corey Kluber on Sunday in a 17-1 mashing to earn a split in the four-game series against a team that came into Toronto on a 12-game winning streak.
Kluber has not been as good in 2016 as he was two years ago, but he remains a dominant starter in the league. In June, he was 4-1 with a 2.19 ERA.
But before Indians manager Terry Francona came out to get him in the fourth inning with one out, the Jays got to Kluber for five runs on seven hits.
In 20 games since June 11, the Jays have scored 135 runs, tops in the majors while hitting an MLB high 42 home runs over that stretch.
The bulk of that damage was done thanks to Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion but there are plenty starting to follow suit.
Troy Tulowitzki had a three-run homer, two singles and a sacrifice fly in six trips to the plate on Sunday. The homer was the sixth in the past 12 games.
Now their pitching hasn’t exactly followed the same curve, but J.A. Happ certainly didn’t disappoint with his outing. Happ improved to 11-3 after giving his team seven innings of five hit, one-run baseball.
Happ didn’t need any more runs once Kluber left but he got plenty anyway as the Jays went to town on Francona’s bullpen for eight runs in the sixth.
The Jays would tag on another four in the eighth with Indians catcher Chris Gimenez taking the mound. Gimenez got through the seventh inning unscathed against the bottom of the Jays lineup. In the eighth, Gimenez gave up back-to-back doubles to Donaldson and Encarnacion, a run-scoring single to Russell Martin and a two-run homer by Justin Smoak.
The Jays managed a combined two runs in the first two games of the series in 28 innings. If the final two games over 17 innings they scored 26 runs.
Toronto continues its 11-game home stand with three against the Royals starting Monday and then will host Detroit for three more before the All-Star break.