TORONTO -- Jose Bautista drove in four runs and starter Mark Buehrle worked seven innings as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Chicago Cubs 9-2 on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre. Bautista cleared the bases with a double in the seventh inning off Chicago reliever Neil Ramirez to help Toronto (75-69) win its third straight game. Kevin Pillar and Edwin Encarnacion had three hits apiece for the Blue Jays, who turned the game into a rout with a five-run eighth inning. Toronto outhit Chicago 14-11 and will go for the three-game sweep on Wednesday night. It was an uneven performance from Buehrle (12-9), who allowed two earned runs and 10 hits but managed to avoid giving up a big inning. Aaron Sanchez and Daniel Norris each worked an inning of relief. The Blue Jays entered play five games behind Seattle in the race for the final wild-card spot in the American League. Toronto has won eight of 10 to keep its faint playoff hopes alive. The Cubs, who have dropped five games in a row, left 11 runners on base. Buehrle fanned leadoff man Chris Coghlan on three pitches to kick off the game on a cool, comfortable summer evening. Javier Baez followed with a double, stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jorge Soler. Chicago (64-81) loaded the bases in the second inning after Buehrle gave up three singles. The veteran left-hander got out of the jam when Coghlan grounded out. Buehrle kept putting runners on but the defence did a nice job bailing him out. Welington Castillo led off the fourth with a single before Mike Olt and Arismendy Alcantara hit back-to-back line drives that were speared by third baseman Danny Valencia. Chris Valaika moved Castillo to second base with another single but Matt Szczur popped up to Buehrle to end the threat. Encarnacion drove a ball off the top of the wall to open the Toronto half of the fourth but settled for a long single. Adam Lind drew a walk but Dioner Navarro couldnt advance the runners, swinging at a 3-0 pitch and popping up in the infield. Valencia nearly put the Jays on the board but his line drive was snagged by a fully stretched Valaika at first base. Valaika threw to second to easily double off Encarnacion. The Cubs put runners on again in the fifth and this time cashed in a run. Baez singled and cleanup hitter Luis Valbuena was hit by a pitch. Castillo drove in Baez with a two-out single before Olt struck out. The Blue Jays tried a more aggressive style against Chicago starter Jake Arrieta in the bottom half of the frame. Pillar led off with a single but was thrown out trying to steal. Ryan Goins then drove a ball into left-centre field and hustled into second base just ahead of Coghlans throw. Anthony Gose tried to bunt with two strikes but fouled a pitch for the second out. Goins moved to third base on a wild pitch and scored when Jose Reyes hit a flare that dropped in shallow centre field. Arrieta was wide with a pickoff attempt and the ball rolled into foul territory, allowing Reyes to scamper all the way to third. He was left stranded when Bautista flew out, with the Toronto slugger angrily slamming his bat to the turf as he left the batters box. The Cubs stranded two more runners in the sixth inning after Szczur and Coghlan reached on back-to-back two-out singles. Pitching coach Pete Walker came out to the mound and Buehrle responded by freezing Baez with a fastball for the strikeout. Pillar stroked a one-out single in the seventh to knock Arrieta out of the game. Ramirez (2-2) came on in relief and gave up a single to pinch-hitter Colby Rasmus and a walk to pinch-hitter Munenori Kawasaki. Ramirez fanned Reyes and worked a full count on Bautista before the Toronto slugger hit his 26th double of the season. The Blue Jays piled on in the eighth against right-hander Brian Schlitter. Lind led off with a triple and was replaced by pinch-runner Steve Tolleson, who scored on a Navarro single. Navarro moved to third on a Valencia double and Rasmus was intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs. Kawasaki hit a two-run single to help put the game out of reach. Arrieta allowed seven hits, two earned runs and a walk while striking out five. Buehrle had three strikeouts and didnt walk a batter. Announced attendance was 17,903 and the game took three hours four minutes to play. Notes: The roof was open despite the occasional presence of dark swirling clouds overhead. ... Toronto Argonauts slotback Andre Durie threw the ceremonial first pitch. ... Encarnacion was originally pencilled in as the first baseman but was moved to designated hitter about an hour before the game. Lind moved from DH to first base. ... Right-hander Drew Hutchison (9-11, 4.47 ERA) will get the start in the series finale against Chicagos Kyle Hendricks (6-1, 2.02). ... This is the first series the Cubs have played on artificial turf since a six-game road trip to Toronto and Tampa Bay in 2008 -- a stretch of 1,040 games on natural grass fields. ... The Blue Jays are off Thursday and will wrap up the six-game homestand with a weekend series against the Rays. ... Toronto entered play with a 1.6 per cent chance of reaching the playoffs, according to Baseball Prospectus post-season probabilities listed on the Major League Baseball website. Jakob Silfverberg Jersey . Fifth-seeded Cilic gained his fourth title in Zagreb and became the third Croat overall to win at least 10 career titles. Cilic also lifted his career record in Zagreb to 22-4, winning 20 of his last 21 matches at the event. Ryan Miller Jersey . You can, too, Clay Buchholz, if we ignore the sixth inning of Game 2. Doug Fister and Jake Peavy, youre up next in Game 4 and theres a lot to live up to. http://www.cheapducksjerseyschina.com/rickard-rakell-jersey/ . Louis Cardinals have agreed to a one-year contract. Cam Fowler Jersey . The Canadian Football Leagues all-time passing leader said he has not made a final decision, but he will discuss his future with Montreal Alouettes owner Bob Wetenhall on the weekend. Ryan Kesler Jersey . Klose has a bruised pelvic bone and abdominal muscle problems but team doctors are trying to get him fit in time for the match. Bender has a hamstring injury. Germany is already without half-dozen players, due to injury or bad form.WASHINGTON D.C. – Randy Carlyle, for one, would like to know where such an effort was hiding. Though they dropped their fourth consecutive game in the U.S. capital on Friday night – and 21st in 32 games since the start of November – the Maple Leafs finally played with the fight that had been mysteriously missing in recent days and, really, for the better part of a disappointing season. "Weve been begging, pleading, kicking, kissing, whatever we can do to try and find a way that we can play with some confidence," said Carlyle after a 3-2 loss to the Capitals. "This might be one of the better games weve played in a month. We showed desperation. We showed that we care [and] when we put our effort and our heart into it that there is more in that room than whats been displayed and thats whats been frustrating everybody – and theyre frustrated also." Still embarrassed from their second blowout loss in the past three games – a 6-1 pounding in Carolina just a night earlier – the Leafs at last competed with the necessary gumption and fire that was noticeably absent all week. Why it took so long to materialize and where it had been hiding was a "mind-boggling" and befuddling point for the Leafs head coach. His team was cleaner, crisper and a considerable contrast to the apparent mess that materialized against the Rangers and Hurricanes. A few mistakes and two unlucky bounces – both the Capitals game-tying and game-winning goals deflected off Toronto skates – ultimately saw a third period lead unravel, but there was, nonetheless, an air of cautious optimism afterward. "I think we played harder," said Dion Phaneuf, leading the team with 24 minutes. "No one likes to be embarrassed the way that we were." "We knew we needed it," David Clarkson added of the improved effort. "Weve got to find ways to compete like that every night. Compete. Compete. Win our battles and well be okay." It was the smallest of steps – they still lost for one thing – but a needed step no less for a team thats been light on optimism in the past two months. An unpredictable animal all year, what remains in question is how the Leafs respond when they host the Devils on Sunday night. Inconsistency has been the defining identity of the club so far. One good effort has only rarely translated into two. In fact, Toronto has won back-to-back games in regulation just once since the start of November. The reality of such a lengthy slide has seen them fall out of a playoff position for the first time all season in recent days, now 10th in the East with 47 points. "We need to start to churn some points for our hockey club to feel good about ourselves," said Carlyle, who felt his team was harder to play against, more physical and tighter defensively against the Capitals. "Theres not a lot of easy breathing taking place around our group right now. Thats the reality of it. But thats what happens when you dont have success." "Its not great when youre losing," Clarkson said. "But this is the part [of the season] that were going to have to rally together. Were going to have to find ways to get wins. I think if we play like we did tonight against every single team, I think well be fine." Five Points 1. Source of Trouble Carl Gunnarsson pointed to the Leafs inconsistency, night to night, period to period, shift to shift, as the source of a troubling first half. "Some nights the forecheck has been great and the day after, its been not as good," he said moments before Fridays game. "Its been just inconsistent all over. The only thing thats been good throughout the year, I think the goaltending has been great from both guys back there. They saved us in a bunch of games." Gunnarsson said the team could work well within its respective system, but failed to do so with any semblance of consistency. "When we do it well it works," he said. "So its just a matter of doing it every night, every shift, not only for every other night or 20, 40 minutes per game, its not enough. Its got to be every night and for 60 minutes." 2. The More Consistent Option in Goal Making his seventh start in the past eight games, Jonathan Bernier returned to the form that saw him gripping hoold of the crease before a pair of losses earlier this week.dddddddddddd The 25-year-old stopped 32 of 35 shots in defeat. Though he and his counterpart, James Reimer, have been equals for the better part of the season, Bernier has certainly proven the more consistent of the two, though Reimer has been dealt his fair share of bad hands, including Thursdays lackluster effort in Carolina. As the table below indicates, Berniers performance has fluctuated only slightly all season. Goaltender Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Bernier .933 .923 .932 .896 Reimer .949 .916 .909 .852 3. Gardiner Sitting for just the second time all season on Thursday night, Jake Gardiner was back in the Toronto lineup against the Capitals, paired with 19-year-old Morgan Rielly for the third time this season. "I thought that was one of Jakes best performances," Carlyle said of Gardiner, who played just under 20 minutes. "He moved the puck, he skated, he didnt turn it over, he made a lot of good plays. Thats what were looking for from him every night." Carlyle hadnt been happy with the 23-year-olds performance against the Rangers and Islanders, pulling him from the lineup in Carolina. "Thats the trials and tribulations of a young player," Carlyle continued. "We know Jake Gardiner has NHL-quality skills, but we believe that theres something there that takes him out of that after four or five games. Whatever that is weve got to find a way to correct that." Of note, Carlyle had Gardiner on the third pairing alongside Rielly, rather than the second grouping with Cody Franson where hes played the better part of the season with inconsistent success. 4. Opting for Optimism Rather than inflame the misery of a perilous slide on Friday morning, Carlyle opted to point out the positives of losses to the Hurricanes and Islanders. "[We] tried to focus on some of the things that were doing well in [Thursday] nights game and some of the games [recently]," said Carlyle after Fridays game. 5. End of a Cold Spell? James van Riemsdyk had his first multi-point outing in more than a month on Friday. Scoring for just the third time in the past 16 games, his 16th this season, while adding a helper on Phil Kessels 21st goal of the season, van Riemsdyk had a pair of points in the same game for the first time since Dec. 7. He sits second on the team in scoring with 33 points in 44 games. "Theres always going to be challenges throughout the year," the 24-year-old said, speaking generally about the team. "Its about how you respond to that. Theres going to be no sulking done by us, throwing a pity party or feeling sorry for ourselves. We know what we need to do. I think the effort tonight was a good response with how we kind of laid an egg [Thursday] night." Stats-Pack 4 – Goals in the past 19 games for James van Riemsdyk, who scored his 16th this season on Friday. 19:33 – Ice-time for Jake Gardiner against Washington. 11-16-5 – Leafs record since the start of November. 22 – Points in the past 32 games for Phil Kessel, who had 18 points in October alone. 6 – Fights this season for Colton Orr, who dueled with John Erskine on Friday. 12 – Points in the past 10 games for Tyler Bozak, who has 18 points in 22 games this season. Special Teams Capsule PP: 1-3 Season: 21.7% (5th) PK: 4-4 Season: 77.5% (27th) Quote of the Night "Weve been begging, pleading, kicking, kissing, whatever we can do to try and find a way that we can play with some confidence." -Randy Carlyle, following the 3-2 defeat in Washington. Up Next The Leafs host the Devils in yet another Sunday night affair at the ACC. 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