ANAHEIM, Calif. — Edwin Encarnacion went 4 for 4 with a homer and four RBIs, and the Toronto Blue Jays completed a thunderous three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday with a 12-5 victory that vaulted them back into first place in the AL East.
The Jays’ 16th victory in 19 games, coupled with the Yankees’ 4-3 loss to Cleveland, put Toronto atop the division for the first time since Aug. 13.
The Blue Jays, who lead the majors by far with 670 runs, set a franchise record for a three-game series with 36. They totalled 48 hits against a vanquished Angels pitching staff that has surrendered 44 runs, 60 hits and 15 walks over their last four games following Jered Weaver’s 1-0 victory over the White Sox on Wednesday.
R.A. Dickey (8-10) won his fifth straight decision over seven starts, despite allowing five runs and 11 hits in six innings.
The knuckleballing right-hander overcame a 39-pitch first inning in which he gave up all five runs.
In Friday night’s series opener, Angels lefty Hector Santiago made 48 pitches in the first inning and gave up three runs en route to a 9-2 loss.
Dickey’s catcher was Josh Thole, who was recalled Sunday from Triple-A Buffalo to catch his knuckleball. They were batterymates numerous times the past two seasons with the Blue Jays, and during the previous three years with the New York Mets.
Garrett Richards (12-10) was charged with nine runs and 10 hits in five-plus innings.
Toronto closed to 5-3 in the second inning when a hard grounder to third base by Troy Tulowitzki with one out and the bases loaded got past rookie Kaleb Cowart for an error that allowed two runs to score.
Richards minimized the damage by getting major league RBI leader Josh Donaldson to ground into a double play on the next pitch, but the Blue Jays grabbed a 6-5 lead in the third.
Encarnacion hit an RBI single that extended his career-best hitting streak to 19 games, Ben Revere had a run-scoring infield hit, and Kevin Pillar scored the go-ahead run when shortstop Erick Aybar misplayed Ryan Goins’ grounder toward the middle for the Angels’ fifth error of the series.
Toronto increased its lead to 8-5 in the fourth with back-to-back homers by Jose Bautista (his 29th) and Encarnacion (his 24th). The Blue Jays have homered in 14 straight road games.