Bautista's Big Hit Helps Blue Jays Beat Cubs, 9-2

TORONTO (AP) — Jose Bautista hit a go-ahead, three-run double in the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays rallied to beat the Chicago Cubs 9-2 on Tuesday night

Mark Buehrle (12-9) allowed two runs and 10 hits in seven innings to stop a six-start winless streak, helping the Blue Jays improve to 6-2 in September.

Aaron Sanchez pitched eighth and Daniel Norris finished for Toronto, which came in five games out in the AL wild-card race.

The Cubs lost their fifth straight game and dropped to 64-81, putting them one defeat away from a fifth consecutive losing season.

After Kevin Pillar's one-out single off Jake Arrieta in the seventh, Neil Ramirez (2-2) came on to face pinch-hitter Colby Rasmus, who singled. Pinch-hitter Munenori Kawasaki walked to load the bases before Ramirez fanned Jose Reyes. Bautista worked the count full before clearing the bases with a double into the left-field corner.

Toronto pulled away with a five-run eighth against Brian Schlitter and Blake Parker.

Chicago's Javier Baez doubled and scored on Jorge Soler's sacrifice fly in the first, and the Cubs made it 2-0 in the fifth on Welington Castillo's third hit of the game.

Toronto cut the deficit in half in the bottom half when Ryan Goins doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out bloop single by Reyes. An errant pickoff throw by Arrieta sent Reyes to third, but Bautista flied out.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Cubs: Manager Rick Renteria said 1B Anthony Rizzo (back) felt fine after taking grounders and hitting in the cage Monday, allowing him to repeat the activities Tuesday. Renteria cautioned, however, that Rizzo is still dealing with "limited parameters."

Blue Jays: Edwin Encarnacion was originally in the lineup at 1B but switched to DH, with Adam Lind taking his place in the field. Encarnacion has been limited since returning from a strained right quadriceps muscle last month.

UP NEXT

Cubs RHP Kyle Hendricks (6-1) faces RHP Drew Hutchison (9-11) in Wednesday's series finale. Hendricks went 4-0 with a 1.69 ERA in August, winning the NL Rookie of the Month award, and then opened September by beating Milwaukee.

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