Blue Jays 14, Devil Rays 0

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Eric Hinske drove in three runs and had three of Toronto’s season-high 20 hits, leading Miguel Batista and the Blue Jays to a 14-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays .

Batista (7-5) has won seven of his last nine decisions after going winless in his first seven starts. The right-hander allowed five singles in seven sharp innings, struck out three and walked one. The Blue Jays have posted shutouts in three of his last five outings.

The right-hander pitched a shutout to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 9 and threw 7 1-3 scoreless innings in a combined 3-0 shutout of San Diego on June 20.

The closest Tampa Bay came to scoring was the second inning, when Batista struck out Geoff Blum to get out of a jam with the bases loaded. Terry Adams pitched the eighth and Kerry Ligtenberg the ninth to finish the five-hitter.

Josh Phelps, Dave Berg, Orlando Hudson and Reed Johnson all drove in two runs apiece for the Blue Jays.

The Devil Rays lost for just the fourth time in their last 21 games. They were a major league-best 20-5 in June, and by splitting four games with Toronto are 9-1-2 in their last 12 series.

All of Phelps’ and Berg’s RBIs came against ex-Blue Jays left-hander Mark Hendrickson (5-6), who made his first start against his former team since being obtained by Tampa Bay in an offseason trade that also involved Colorado.

The Blue Jays scored on Berg’s RBI double and Hudson’s bloop single in the third, then added five runs – two of them unearned – against the 6-foot-9 Hendrickson in the fourth.

Phelps doubled with the bases loaded to drive in the first two runs in the fourth. Frank Menechino also had an RBI single, and the other two runs scored on a fielder’s choice and Hinske’s grounder to first base.

Berg’s run-scoring single off Bartolome Fortunato made it 8-0 in the fifth. The Blue Jays added two in the eighth off Trever Miller on Hudson’s RBI triple and Johnson’s groundout.

Hendrickson, 9-9 with a 5.51 ERA as a rookie for the Blue Jays last season, allowed seven runs and eight hits in three-plus innings, his second straight subpar outing after winning three consecutive decisions.

Hinske had a two-run single in Toronto’s four-run ninth against Jorge Sosa. Johnson and Gregg Zaun each added an RBI single.

Notes: In his last two starts, Hendrickson has allowed 11 runs (nine earned) and 13 hits in seven innings. … Blue Jays 1B Carlos Delgado, out since May 30 with a rib cage injury, will not return until this weekend’s series against Montreal in his native Puerto Rico. … By going 20-5 in June, the Devil Rays became the first team in the majors to win 20 in a month since Oakland went 20-9 last August. … The Blue Jays have allowed eight earned runs in their last seven victories, compared to 52 in their last six losses.

AP-ES-07-01-04 1714EDT