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Blue Jays' Dickey seeing red ... in a good way

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As part of Canada Baseball Day celebrations, the Blue Jays wore red uniforms and invited a number of special guests to Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Twins, including the Canadian team (from Vancouver) that competed in the 2016 Little League World Series. Former Jays GM Pat Gillick threw out the first pitch to Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar. Starting pitcher R.A Dickey had a little fun when asked about wearing the red uniforms.

“That’s cool, but to be honest with you, I don’t know if I know much about Canada Baseball Day,” said the Nashville, Tenn., native. “I was wearing a red jersey, I wasn’t really sure why until they told me after the game.”

Dickey laughed when asked (jokingly) if he celebrated Canada Baseball Day growing up.

“No, not quite,” he said. “But I think it should be celebrated. I need to work on that for the States, to have an American Baseball Day.”

“But it’s great to win when you have such a great fan base,” he added. “Those guys in the upper ring had to be baking. But they were there and they were loud and it’s fun to play when the crowds like that.”

FACING THE MUSIC

Twins right fielder Max Kepler took the blame for his ill-advised dive on a Melvin Upton Jr. hit on Saturday which resulted in the Jays taking an 8-7 lead and ultimately winning the game by the same score.

“You see the ball, you think you have a chance to dive, you dive. All out,” Kepler told the Star-Tribune newspaper. “You take a risk. If you don’t take a risk, it’s going to fall in and the game (is tied). So I’m going to try to make the best effort I can to catch the ball. Made a mistake. Made two mistakes. Made three mistakes. I take the blame.”

WORDS OF WISDOM

In the top of the seventh on Sunday with the Twins holding a 5-4 lead and Joe Mauer on first base, Toronto manager John Gibbons brought in pitcher Scott Feldman to face Trevor Plouffe. During Feldman’s battle with Plouffe, Jays’ short stop Troy Tulowitzki jogged over to say a few words to his pitcher and Feldman promptly got Plouffe to hit into an inning-ending, 5-4-3 double play.

“He’s paying attention,” Gibbons said of Tulowitzki. “He’s sitting out there at short stop, he’s right in line with the catcher and he sees what the ball’s doing, he watching how the hitter’s react ... he’s into the game, that’s for damn sure.”

AROUND THE DIAMOND

The Jays gathered around the locker of backup catcher Josh Thole following Sunday’s game to say goodbye — before the Jays had announced exactly what they were doing with him with new catcher Dioner Navarro coming in on Monday. It’s obvious that Thole is on his way out. The question is, will he be back after the September call-ups? He likely will be if no other team claims him ... Michael Saunders, who has been hobbled off and on with a hamstring issue, didn’t play on Sunday. With Thole catching the knuckleballer Dickey, Russ Martin DH’d ... Toronto relievers Jason Grilli and Joaquin Benoit have not allowed a run in their combined last 25.1 innings pitched. Grilli pitched a clean eighth inning against the Twins and his becoming a huge fan favorite at the Rogers Centre. He is currently riding a 13.0 scoreless inning streak ... The Jays have now won 21 of their last 30 games at home, out scoring the opposition 179-126. With the win on Sunday, they’ve scored at least eight runs in three consecutive games for the first time since Sept.11-12, 2015 (including a doubleheader) in New York ... Upton Jr. who smacked a double in the seventh inning to score two runs, is batting .310 over his last 11 games, driving in 10 runs over those contests. He only had two RBI in his first 18 games with Toronto.

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