Oakland, CA – Jose Bautista hit his 25th home run of the season and Mark Buerhle threw seven shutout innings as the Toronto Blue Jays blanked the Oakland Athletics, 5-0, in the middle test of a three-game set.
Buerhle (7-7) scattered five hits and struck out two in his outing. The 34- year-old lefty was coming off a two-hit shutout against the Astros on Thursday.
Emilio Bonifacio also had a home run while Colby Rasmus provided an RBI for the Blue Jays, who have won four of six.
Dan Straily (6-5) gave up all five runs -- two earned -- on six hits and a pair of walks for the Athletics, who had a four-game winning streak snapped.
Bautista's solo shot came with two outs in the first.
Three innings later, Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind hit back-to-back one-out singles, before Rasmus smacked a single to left. A's left fielder Yoenis Cespedes was unable to make a grab, allowing Encarnacion to score.
Toronto scored three more runs in the fifth. Bonifacio clubbed a 2-2 pitch to lead off. After Jose Reyes walked, Izturis grounded into a fielder's choice, but a throwing error by A's shortstop Adam Rosales allowed him to reach first and Reyes to score.
After Lind was walked with two outs, Straily was replaced by Dan Otero, but he gave up an RBI single to Rasmus.
Darren Oliver came out to pitch in the ninth for Toronto. The 42-year-old lefty gave up a leadoff double to Jed Lowrie and a infield single to Cespedes. Lowrie reached third after Josh Donaldson grounded into a double play, but Oliver retired Nate Freiman to end the game.
Game Notes
During the game, the Athletics acquired infielder Alberto Callaspo from the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for infielder Grant Green ... Bautista has 25 home runs for the fourth straight season. He's the fourth player in Blue Jays history to accomplish the feat, joining Carlos Delgado, Joe Carter and George Bell ... Oakland's Bartolo Colon is scheduled to face Toronto's R.A. Dickey in Wednesday's series finale.