{"id":38982,"date":"2026-05-10T01:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/38982\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T01:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:15:10","slug":"valenzuela-clement-spark-blue-jays-to-14-1-demolition-of-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/38982\/","title":{"rendered":"Valenzuela, Clement spark Blue Jays to 14-1 demolition of Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ernie Clement tied a career high with five hits during the Toronto Blue Jays’ blowout victory on Saturday.Chris Young\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Brandon Valenzuela\u2019s three-run homer capped off a seven-run fifth inning, and Ernie Clement belted a career-best five hits for the Toronto Blue Jays in a 14-1 thumping of the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Toronto sent 11 batters to the plate in the fifth as Valenzuela\u2019s homer to left field was his fourth in 2026. Clement\u2019s 5-for-5 game at the plate included a solo shot to lead off the seventh.<\/p>\n

Addison Barger returned after missing 29 games with a sprained left ankle. He had an outfield assist in the second inning and went 0-for-3 with two walks.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays (18-21) enjoyed a 20-hit outing with four runs on four hits in the ninth, when Angels position player Adam Frazier pitched.<\/p>\n

Toronto won the first two games of the three-game set.<\/p>\n

The Angels (15-25) have dropped four of their last six outings.<\/p>\n

Valenzuela\u2019s homer came off a first-pitch slider from starter Jack Kochanowicz (2-2), who departed after facing six batters in the fifth without recording an out.<\/p>\n

Kochanowicz allowed six earned runs on nine hits with two walks and no strikeouts before 41,461 at Rogers Centre.<\/p>\n

Toronto starter Trey Yesavage went four innings. His 87-pitch, shutout effort yielded six strikeouts with four hits, two walks and a hit batter.<\/p>\n

Relievers Mason Fluharty (2-0), Braydon Fisher, Joe Mantiply, Tyler Rogers and Tommy Nance each worked an inning to close the deal. Rogers surrendered the Angels\u2019 lone run in the eighth.<\/p>\n

Takeaways<\/p>\n

Blue Jays: Honoured former manager Bobby Cox, who died at 84 on Saturday, with a moment of silence before the game. A 2014 Hall of Fame inductee, Cox managed the Blue Jays for four seasons, steering them to their first division title in 1985.<\/p>\n

Angels: The visitors aided Toronto\u2019s fifth with sloppy defence. There was a wild pitch and a throwing error from Kochanowicz. A Jesus Sanchez blooper down the left field line fell between outfielder Josh Lowe, Yoan Moncada and shortstop Zach Neto. Finally, Moncado failed to knock down Clement\u2019s hard-hit grounder.<\/p>\n

Key moment<\/p>\n

Barger snared Vaughn Grissom\u2019s line drive to right and then threw a bullet to catcher Valenzuela to nab a tagging Jorge Soler at the plate for a second-inning ending double play.<\/p>\n

Key stat<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s Kazuma Okamoto extended his hit streak to eight games. He has batted .370 (10 for 27) with five homers, nine RBI and five walks in May.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Lefty Eric Lauer (1-4) will start for Toronto in the series finale against Angels righty Jose Soriano (5-2) on Sunday at 1:37 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ernie Clement tied a career high with five hits during the Toronto Blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,48,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-38982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-toronto","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}