Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt threw eight shutout innings and Alejandro Kirk drove in three runs to help the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday.
Bassitt allowed just three hits and a walk as the Blue Jays took the rubber game of the three-game series at Rogers Centre. He had three strikeouts over the 110-pitch outing.
Kirk scored twice and had three of Toronto’s 12 hits. Santiago Espinal had two RBIs and Davis Schneider had two runs.
Right-hander Jay Jackson recorded the final three outs.
Toronto (73-61) entered play 3 1/2 games out of a playoff spot in the American League.
The Blue Jays are chasing the Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers, who began the day in a virtual tie for the West Division lead and the last two wild-card spots.
It was Toronto’s 13th shutout win of the season. The Blue Jays improved their interleague record this year to an MLB-best 28-15.
Toronto was aggressive from the outset in the mid-afternoon matchup and it paid off with an early lead.
Nationals starter Patrick Corbin (9-12) walked Schneider and gave up a single to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. They completed a double-steal before both players scored on a Kirk double.
Kirk doubled again in the fourth as the Blue Jays put up two more runs.
He took third on a single by Ernie Clement and scored on an Espinal single. Cavan Biggio drove in Clement with a sacrifice fly.
Bassitt (13-7), who entered with losses in four of his last six decisions, held the Nationals to two singles over the first four frames.
He gave up a two-out double to Jacob Young in the fifth but picked him off to erase the threat.
Bassitt leads the major leagues with eight starts of at least six scoreless innings. Roger Clemens set the team record of nine in 1997.
Toronto piled on in the sixth inning by recording four straight hits that pushed two more runs across.
Kirk started the rally with a single and later scored on a Clement single. Daulton Varsho scored on an Espinal single to make it 6-0.
Corbin allowed six earned runs and 10 hits over five innings. He walked a batter and had five strikeouts.
Kirk added another RBI with a sacrifice fly in the seventh that brought home Schneider.
Announced attendance was 39,303 and the game took two hours 23 minutes to play.
TIGHT BELT
Toronto’s Brandon Belt was still nursing a minor back issue Wednesday that prevented him from a potential pinch-hitting assignment a night earlier.
Belt was getting loose late in Tuesday’s game when back spasms left him unavailable.
Manager John Schneider said Belt was “feeling a little bit better” for the series finale but he was not in the starting lineup.
REAL MCCOY
Recent Triple-A call-up Mason McCoy made his big-league debut for Toronto in the eighth inning.
He came on as a pinch-hitter for Clement and struck out in his lone plate appearance.
COMING UP
The Blue Jays are off Thursday. Toronto will kick off a six-game road trip against the Colorado Rockies on Friday night.
The Nationals will return home for a four-game series against the Miami Marlins starting Thursday evening.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2023.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
