Donaldson duplicates late-inning magic

TORONTO -- Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson was back to his old tricks on Wednesday afternoon as he came through with a homer in the ninth inning for the second consecutive game.

Donaldson was the hero on Tuesday night with a three-run walk-off homer against White Sox closer David Robertson, and he nearly became one again less than 24 hours later. This time it was a solo shot off Robertson that tied the game at 3 but ultimately came during a game the Blue Jays lost, 5-3, in 10 innings.

The late-inning loss soured an otherwise dramatic finish, but on a personal level, things couldn't be going any better for Donaldson. He has four home runs over his last three games and has sole possession of the top spot on the club with 13.

"Cutter, just this one was a little bit up," Donaldson said of the pitch from Robertson that led to the game-tying homer. "From my at-bat earlier, I hit a fly ball to right field that I thought I hit pretty well, and I figured I should try and pull it."

Video: CWS@TOR: Donaldson smacks two homers, walks off

On Tuesday night, Donaldson became the first player in franchise history to have four hits, four RBIs and five runs scored in a single game. That garnered a lot of attention and rightfully so, but the impressive numbers are just a continuation of what Donaldson has been doing all season.

Entering play on Wednesday, Donaldson ranked first in the American League with 25 extra-base hits. He also was fourth in hits (58), tied for fourth in doubles (13), fifth in OPS (.960) and tied for fifth in RBIs (33).

Even though the Blue Jays ended up losing in extra innings, Donaldson saw the silver lining. Toronto finished a 10-game homestand by winning two of its final three against Chicago to finish with a .500 record. If a ball hadn't been lost in the sun by Ezequiel Carrera in the third inning -- which allowed two runs to score -- it's possible the Blue Jays could have even escaped with a sweep.

"We feel like we're playing pretty well," Donaldson said. "I'm not here to make excuses, but a ball gets into the sun and scores two runs, that's just baseball. At the end of the day, we kept pushing and gave ourselves a chance to win, but obviously they ended up scoring a few more runs in the end."