Bautista, Encarnacion Lead Blue Jays to Wild, 11-10, Win over Red Sox; Carpenter Blanks Brewers, 2-0, on Four Hits

Players of the Day for Wednesday, September 7, 2011

American League

With the Yankees losing to Baltimore, 5-4, in 11 innings during the afternoon, the Red Sox had an opportunity to pick up a game on the AL East leaders. After blanking the Blue Jays, 14-0, the day before, Boston players probably thought they had a shot at taking two straight with Tim Wakefield going to the mound.

Encarnacion: 5 RBI

Things didn't quite work out as the teams battled to an 11-10 decision in favor of Toronto, aided by Jose Bautista, who only had one hit (and it wasn't a home run) and some key contributions from streaky Edwin Encarnacion.

Bautista was such a thorn in the side of Boston pitchers that he was walked twice, but smacked a ground rule double in the third inning, but then proceeded, with two outs, to steal third base and home, boosting the Blue Jays' lead to 5-3 at the time.

Jose Bautista

The Red Sox scored four in the next half inning and another in the top of the 5th, putting themselves ahead 8-5, but Encarnacion, who drove in the first Toronto run with a sac fly in the first, struck back with an RBI single in the 7th and delivered a bases-loaded double in the 8th, plating three more to put the Jays up 11-8. Boston scored two more in the top of the 9th, falling a run short of tying the game.

Encarnacion went 2-for-4 with five RBI. Bautista was 1-for-2, with two steals, two runs and two RBI, giving him 94 on the year.

Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 12 games, going 4-for-5 with two runs and three RBI. His name being tossed around MVP discussions, Ellsbury is batting .316 (6th in the AL), with 25 home runs, 88 RBI and 36 steals (3rd in the AL). The Red Sox remained 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the division.

National League

Chris Carpenter

Time continues to work against the St. Louis Cardinals, though they're doing their best in what seems a futile effort to catch the Brewers in the NL Central.

The Cardinals took the rubber game of their three-game set with Milwaukee, winning 2-0, on the strength of Chris Carpenter's 4-hit shutout.

It was the righty's third complete game of the season and first shutout. Carpenter has thrown 14 shutouts in his 14-year major league career.

Evening his record at 9-9, Carpenter walked two and struck out five, needing only 97 pitches (64 strikes) to mow down the potent Brewer lineup. The Cardinals took the last two from Milwaukee, but still trail the Brewers by 8 1/2 games in the division. They did get some help from the Phillies in the wild card race, as they downed the Braves, 3-2, cutting their lead over St. Louis to 6 1/2 games.