TORONTO — Adam Dunn hit two home runs, including a 469-foot bomb to center field and a game-tying opposite-field shot leading off the ninth, but the Toronto Blue Jays pushed across a run in the bottom of the 11th inning to defeat the White Sox 3-2 on Monday night.
David Cooper singled sharply to right field against Nate Jones to drive in Kelly Johnson with the winning run. Johnson had walked on four pitches from lefty Leyson Septimo (0-2), who faced one batter.
Dunn ended a 13-game homer drought, his longest this season, and hit the 1,000 milestone for RBI. He has 78 this season.
“That was a big one in the ninth but we have to get something else going besides waiting for home runs,” manager Robin Ventura said.
The Sox had seven hits and struck out 16 times. Starter Carlos Villanueva struck out eight and reliever Steve Delebar had six, including four in the 10th inning because of a dropped third strike.
“You always tip your cap to a guy who is pitching like that but you want your guys to be better,” Ventura said. “Didn’t look fluid or anything so you hope it gets better.”
The Sox made the right move by calling up a 13th pitcher, Donnie Veal. Brett Myers, Jesse Crain, Septimo and Jones all pitched in relief.
Sox starter Jake Peavy gave up two runs over eight innings, once again coming away without a victory despite pitching well enough to win. Edwin Encarnicion singled in ninth-place hitter Anthoy Gose after Peavy hit Gose and then Kelly Johnson two batters later.
Moises Sierra hit his first homer leading off the seventh.
“He pitched great,” Ventura said. “He battles and for one reason or another we don’t score runs for him. He always goes out there knowing each pitch can cost him. We have to do a better job giving him more room to pitch with.”
In the Jays’ 11th, Septimo walked Johnson, and Edwin Encarnacion singled to right against Jones, sending Johnson to third and setting up Cooper’s walk-off smash to right.
“You don’t want to see that any time,” Ventura said of Septimo’s four-pitch walk. “Bad time for it.”
Had the Sox mounted more offense than what Dunn provided, this one wouldn’t have even gone to extra innings.
“We’re having trouble scoring runs right now,” Dunn said. “It’s one of those things we’ve been through before. We hopefully will come back tomorrow and swing the bats.
“It seems like every year there is one guy who gets screwed; it’s definitely [Peavy]. We can’t score runs when he’s on the mound. He keeps us in every game. Can’t put a finger on why, it’s just one of those things.”
“It’s just tough to lose games you feel like you had a chance to win,” Peavy said. “I know that this is kind of the underlying theme with my season but you’ve got to give the kid on the other side a lot of credit: he was awfully good tonight.”
Dunn said he was “basically trying to put the ball in play” on his first homer.
“It’s good to have some good at-bats,” Dunn said. “I’ve been feeling good, just swinging at bad pitches or taking too many good pitches. I felt good. I felt like I had two good at-bats.
“I feel great. I know I’m stinking but I feel good. Like every day it’s going to be good. A lot of times I try to do too much in situations. Probably look for a specific pitch too many times. I’ve done that my whole life but I need to start looking in an area and not specific pitches.”
On driving in 1,000 runs, Dunn said, “that’s something when you’re finished playing you’ll calcualate where you’re at. Hopefully I won’t end with a thousand. That would be pretty bad.”
Notes: The Jays are 16-3 in their last 19 games at Rogers Centre.
*Villanueva tied a career high with eight strikeouts.
* Dunn has 12 homers with two strikes this season.
*A.J. Pierzynski’s hitting streak ended at 14.
