Blue Jays power past Royals on Canada Day

TORONTO -- The Blue Jays broke out the fireworks for Canada Day.

On the country’s 152nd birthday, Toronto’s bats provided the firepower to lead the team to an 11-4 victory over the Royals on Monday afternoon at Rogers Centre, its first Canada Day win in four years. Shortstop Freddy Galvis led the lineup with two home runs and a double in his third career multihomer game, and his first contest with three extra-base hits.

• Box score

“That’s pretty cool,” the 29-year-old infielder said. “Especially my first at-bat. With two strikes, I was just trying to put the ball in play, trying to pick a good pitch, and I made a really good adjustment right there and I hit the ball [out] to centre field.”

Randal Grichuk added four hits and drove in four runs, while Cavan Biggio notched four RBIs for the second time in his young career with a trio of knocks. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. continued his incredible run at the plate with a double, two singles and three runs scored, and he is now batting .487 (19-for-39) with five homers and eight RBIs in his last nine games.

“We played a really good baseball game today,” Galvis said. “[Clayton] Richard pitched really well, the guys in the bullpen did their job, the offence did their job. It was a special day for the city, and everything was good today.

“Before the game, when I saw everything with the [Canada Day] ceremony and everything, I thought it was pretty cool, and that actually got me going a little bit.”

After notching just one hit in his last four contests, Teoscar Hernández broke out with a homer and a single on Monday. Montreal-born Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled and walked twice, one day after being named as a participant in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby for the upcoming All-Star Game festivities at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

“The consistency of [the offence was most impressive], one through nine,” Richard said. “That’s difficult to do in this game, to be able to put up consistent, quality at-bats over and over again for the entirety of a game, because you know you’re going to see multiple arms. For them to do it against multiple guys is impressive.”

The offensive outburst earned Richard his first win in a Blue Jays uniform. The 35-year-old left-hander breezed through the Royals’ lineup the first time through the order, but he ran into trouble in the fourth inning. Kansas City sent eight batters to the plate and scored three in the frame, before he settled in.

“It’s huge,” Richard said of getting his first win. “That’s why we play the game is to win. It feels a lot better doing that than the alternative. So, good day. I enjoyed it for sure.”

After a similar outing in his last start on Tuesday in New York, Richard gave the Blue Jays the length they needed on Monday, as they'd delved deep into their bullpen over the weekend. The veteran southpaw finished six innings, allowing those three runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts.

“He had an outstanding outing against the Yankees, and then today was also good, and that’s all we can ask from [him],” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “Five, six good innings, and he gave us that again today. Good outing, he’s healthy, he feels good on the mound, he’s moving around well, so back-to-back good outings.”

Toronto is 15-26 all-time on Canada Day, with an 11-10 record at Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays’ last win on the Canadian holiday came in 2015, when they took down the Red Sox, 11-2. Monday’s victory was Toronto’s second this season with the roof open, to go with eight lidded-popped losses.

“It’s pretty special,” Richard said of Canada Day. “I’m not from here, so I cannot totally grasp what it means to the citizens of Canada, but I can see it. I can see how much it means to so many people, and I feel honoured and privileged to be a part of it. It was a lot of fun to be able to play in that today.”