Toronto's Edwin Incarnation Belts Three HRs, Drives in Nine; Lance Lynn Hurls Cardinals Past Giants

Players of the Day for Saturday, August 29, 2015

American League

Encarnacion: 3HR, 9 RBI

Lynn: 7 Scoreless

Baseball season is roughly 26 weeks long, so, if a player were to drive in nine runs a week, he'd break every RBI record dating back into the 1800s by a long shot, because he'd have somewhere in the neighborhood of 234 RBI at the conclusion of the season.

With that in mind, consider the accomplishment on Toronto's Edwin Encarnacion, who didn't drive in nine runs this week, but did it in just one game, belting three home runs in the Blue Jay's epic 15-1 romp over the Detroit Tigers.

Encarnacion tied Roy Howell for the single-game club record for RBIs and matched another club mark, tying Carlos Delgado (1997) and Darrin Fletcher (2000) with three grand slams in a season, which he did in his final at-bat, in the seventh inning, off Detroit hurler Alex Wilson.

An equal opportunity mauler, Encarnacion hit his other two homers off two other Tiger pitchers. In the first, he smacked a three-run shot off starter Buck Farmer and in the sixth, he ended reliever Guido Knudson's day with a two-run blast.

The big day at the plate added to what's already been a banner year for the Toronto basher. Encarnacion has 29 homers with 90 RBI and a .269 batting average. His RBI total has him tied for third in the AL with KC's Kendrys Morales. Toronto's own Josh Donaldson leads the league with 104. Baltimore's Chris Davis is second, at 92.

Toronto's victory kept them 1 1/2 games up on the Yankees in the AL East as New York topped Atlanta for the second straight day, 3-1. The Blue Jays seek the sweep of the Tigers when they host Detroit in the third game of their series at the Rogers Centre at 1:07 pm EDT Sunday.

National League

For nearly the entire season, the St. Louis Cardinals have had the best record in the majors (83-46), and it hasn't been by accident, though it has served a valuable purpose: keeping them ahead of the volatile Pittsburgh Pirates, who have the second best mark in the National League at 79-49. Only Kansas City, in the AL Central, has a better record than the Pirates, at 80-49.

On Saturday, the Cardinals were the beneficiaries of a gutsy performance by starting pitcher, Lance Lynn, who shut out the Giants into the eighth inning before having to leave the field, twisting his ankle fielding a chopper off the bat of Juan Perez.

Lynn picked up his 11th win against eight losses, allowing six hits in the Cardinals' 6-0 victory.

Lynn suffered only a mild sprain and is expected to make his next scheduled start. The Cardinals kept their edge over the Pirates at 3 1/2 games. Pittsburgh has won four straight after downing Colorado, 4-3, and, if they don't catch the Cardinals in the division race, are looking like a certain lock for the first wild card spot in the post-season.

St. Louis wraps up their three-game series at San Francisco Sunday afternoon at 1:05 PDT. The series is tied at one game apiece.