scheduled to start Tuesday night against right-hander Kevin Cor

TORONTO -- Kevin Pillar had a chat with slugger Jose Bautista as they practised their swings shortly before the Toronto Blue Jays took on the Minnesota Twins on Monday night. Bautista offered some words of encouragement for the backup outfielder and told him to be aggressive at the plate. It proved to be sage advice. Pillar hit a one-out flare to right field off Casey Fien that drove in pinch-runner Erik Kratz with the winning run to give the Blue Jays a 5-4 walkoff victory at Rogers Centre. "It was a slider off the plate and I was just able to nestle it in somewhere," Pillar said. "And it feels good." Earlier in the inning, Pillar made a miscue in left field by diving for Kurt Suzukis sinking liner. He couldnt come up with the ball and it rolled by him, allowing the Twins to move within a run. Eduardo Escobar followed with a blooper off closer Casey Janssen that landed just inside the left-field line and brought Suzuki home with the tying run. "Baseball is a weird game," Pillar said. "You get a chance to make up for a mistake that you made maybe in the previous inning or early in the game. I was fortunate enough to make that happen." Edwin Encarnacion had staked Toronto (39-26) to an early lead with a three-run homer in the first inning off Minnesota starter Ricky Nolasco. Jose Reyes added a solo homer in the fifth inning for the Blue Jays, who lead the major leagues with 91 home runs. With the win, the Blue Jays remained 5 1/2 games ahead of second-place Baltimore in the American League East division standings. The Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-0 Monday. It was Torontos 16th victory in its last 20 games. "Weve been playing good baseball but you still need to win some of those games like that," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "For the longest time, everything has been going our way. Tonight things didnt go our way but we still managed to come out and pull out a nice win." Minnesota (29-33) scored a pair of quick runs off Toronto starter R.A. Dickey before many fans had taken their seats on a glorious spring evening. Danny Santana hit his first career leadoff home run and Brian Dozier followed with a rainbow shot just inside the foul pole in left field. Dickey settled down after that, retiring 11 straight batters at one point before Josh Willinghams triple in the sixth inning. The Twins loaded the bases but Dustin McGowan came on and got Trevor Plouffe to ground into a double play to end the threat. Janssen (1-0), who blew his second save of the season, gave up three hits in the ninth inning. With the crowd deflated after the Twins tied the game, Minnesota pitcher Matt Guerrier (0-1) walked Dioner Navarro to open the bottom of the ninth. Kratz came in to pinch-run, moved to second on a Reyes single and then scored with room to spare. "You walk the leadoff guy, you give yourself pretty much a mess and anything can happen after that," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. Pillar, who entered the game in the ninth as a defensive replacement for Melky Cabrera, said his defensive miscue was on his mind when he came to the plate. Thinking about his chat with Bautista, Pillar swung and missed the first two times before making contact. "Its a huge roller-coaster of emotions right there," he said. "I guess thats baseball. Theres a lot of ups and downs. You have to find a way to get back centred and deal with the task at hand." Notes: Encarnacion leads the Blue Jays with 20 homers this season. Reyes now has four homers this year. Dozier has 13 home runs while Santana has gone deep twice. ... Dickey allowed five hits, two earned runs, two walks and had three strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. ... Nolasco allowed seven hits, four earned runs and a pair of walks. He had six strikeouts. ... Morales signed a one-year, prorated contract Sunday. The Cuban slugger hit .277 with 23 homers and 80 RBIs with Seattle last season. ... The Twins have hit four leadoff home runs this season. ... Toronto southpaw J.A. Happ is scheduled to start Tuesday night against right-hander Kevin Correia. ... The teams will wrap up the series Wednesday with an early afternoon game. ... Bautista has reached base safely in 62 of 65 games this season. ... Announced attendance was 19,428. The game took two hours 53 minutes to play. Cheap Nike Zoom Shoes .5 million, four-year contract with the Texas Rangers that could be worth $32. Cheap Nike Zoom Wholesale . "Today was a very great day for me. It was always my dream to be good in GS," Wierather said. "I took quite a long time to get there. It feels awesome to have my first win (in GS)." Wierather leads overall with 595 points from Lara Gut (568), who finished second, and Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany (535). http://www.cheapnikezoom.com/. Re-signed by the club to a one-year, two-way (NHL/AHL) contract on July 5, Bass appeared in three preseason games with Columbus prior to breaking a bone in his hand on Sept. Nike Zoom Wholesale . The 17-time Grand Slam champion, who lose three straight finals in Monte Carlo to Rafael Nadal from 2006-08, has not played in the tournament since 2011, when he lost to Jurgen Melzer in the quarterfinals. Cheap Nike Zoom Shoes Free Shipping Worldwide . -- The Chicago Bears agreed Tuesday to a one-year contract with defensive lineman Israel Idonije and are bringing him back for a second stint. DETROIT -- Torii Hunter hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning, lifting Detroit over the Oakland Athletics 7-6 Thursday and boosting the Tigers after Max Scherzer was denied his 20th win and Miguel Cabrera limped off with an injury. The Tigers scored four times in the ninth off Grant Balfour (0-3). A two-out walk set up Victor Martinez RBI single, then Hunter homered as the Tigers avoided a sweep. Scherzer gave up six runs in five innings. The no-decision left him with a 19-1 record. Cabrera hurt his abdomen making an awkward slide while trying to stretch a single into a double in the fifth inning. He was listed as day to day with discomfort. The reigning Triple Crown winner has been hobbled this month with a strain in his groin, abdominal and hip area. Hes also had a banged-up left leg. Cabrera got two hits before being injured, increasing his major league-leading batting average to .359. He leads baseball with 130 RBIs, and his 43 homers trail only Baltimores Chris Davis. Scherzers bid to be the first pitcher in the major leagues with 20 wins this season didnt look good at the start. Coco Crisp led off the game with a double and Lowrie hit a one-out, two-run homer on a thigh-high, 92-mph fastball. Scherzer held the As to only one hit over the next two innings, but they built a four-run cushion in the fourth on sacrifice flies by Daric Barton and Eric Sogard. Josh Donaldson hit a leadoff triple in the fifth and Brandon Moss homered deepp into the right-field seats to make it 6-1.dddddddddddd As starter Bartolo Colon was in a position to win his 15th game. He allowed only one run and five hits without a walk over five innings in his first start since Aug. 13, when a groin injury landed him on the disabled list. Prince Fielder hit a solo homer in the sixth off Jerry Blevins, who gave up another run and retired only one batter to let the Tigers pull within three runs. Oaklands Dan Otero and Sean Doolittle each followed with a 1 1-3 innings of scoreless relief, setting Balfour up to potentially pitch for his 34th save in 35 chances. He gave up a leadoff walk to Austin Jackson and walked Fielder with two outs. Balfour then got ahead 0-2 against Martinez, but couldnt get a third strike against him and that proved to be costly. Balfour gave up two hits, two walks and four runs and got just two outs in the pivotal inning that prevented the As from finishing off a four-game sweep. NOTES: Tigers manager Jim Leyland said the team has decided which players will be added to the roster when it expands to 40 players on Sept. 1, but declined to make any announcements. Leyland said the call-ups will happen in multiple groups, starting on Sept. 1 and continuing as minor league seasons come to an end. ... Moss four homers in the series were more than he hit in three of his first five major league seasons. Moss didnt reach double figures until last year, his sixth, when he hit 21 for Oakland. ' ' '