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Price solid on birthday, helps Blue Jays to 5th straight win

Jerome Miron / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

Heading into Wednesday's start at Globe Life Park, left-hander David Price hadn't lost in four starts since being traded to the Toronto Blue Jays hours before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

And judging by his performance against the Texas Rangers, the former Cy Young award winner certainly wasn't prepared to suffer his first loss with his new team on his birthday.

Rather, Price celebrated his 30th birthday with another solid outing, settling down nicely after surrendering a pair of runs in the opening frame – the only runs he'd allow over six innings – to lift Toronto to a 12-4 win, the club's fifth straight victory.

Despite failing to pitch into the seventh inning for the first time since joining the Blue Jays, the five-time All-Star recorded his fifth quality start in as many tries and improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio to a superb 41:7 through 36 1/3 innings with Toronto.

Date OPP IP R SO Game Score
Aug 3 MIN 8 1 11 81
Aug 8 NYY 7 0 7 75
Aug 14 NYY 7.1 3 6 50
Aug 21 LAA 8 2 9 70
Aug 26 TEX 6 2 8 61

Still, Toronto's prolific offense couldn't resist the temptation to upstage Price, even on his birthday. Propelled by a two-run homer from Justin Smoak in the fifth and an Edwin Encarnacion grand slam one inning later, the Blue Jays pounded out 12 runs on 10 hits – the ninth time this season Toronto's lineup has churned out at least a dozen runs in a game, tops in the major leagues.

The Blue Jays also established a new franchise record by plating 10 or more runs for the 20th time this season, while the victory afforded Toronto a two-game lead over the New York Yankees atop the American League East standings.

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