France's homer pushes Mariners past Blue Jays

TORONTO — Kevin Gausman had a plan when facing the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday, but they'd also worked out a strategy for him.

The Blue Jays starter allowed two runs over five innings pitched as Seattle beat Toronto 5-1. Gausman took the loss as he gave up seven hits and a walk while striking out three.

"I competed but wasn't as sharp as I have been this year," said Gausman, who had a 3-1 record before dropping back-to-back starts. "If you watched any of our games, you could probably tell that they did a good job of battling me.

"I mean, I gotta give them credit. They laid off a lot of really good pitches, and I really got my pitch count up."

Ty France had a two-run blast in the seventh inning as Seattle (17-21) avoided a three-game sweep in Toronto. Cal Raleigh and Montreal's Abraham Toro added solo home runs.

"Tonight, as a team, we had an approach and a plan and we stuck to it and it worked for us," said France. "It’s nice seeing that stuff come together. The game plan was to lay off (Gausman's) stuff down and we did a good job of that, forced his pitch count up and got him out of the game early."

Gausman said he and catcher Danny Jansen purposely stayed away from his slider, which is usually one of his most reliable out pitches.

"They had six lefties in the lineup and all their lefties are really good against spin in the zone," said Gausman. "So I just kind of shelved it, threw it to the righties."

Marco Gonzales (2-4) gave up only one run on five hits and three walks, striking out two over six innings before the Mariners bullpen closed the door.

Vladimir Guererro Jr. and Santiago Espinal both extended their career-best hit streaks for the Blue Jays (20-18). Guerrero has had a hit in 15-straight games and Espinal's