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Dickey goes distance as Blue Jays down Angels

May 22, 2015 - 3:11 AM Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) - R.A. Dickey had his knuckleball working again, Edwin Encarnacion belted a three-run homer and the Toronto Blue Jays bounced back with an 8-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Dickey (2-5) spun a five-hitter in his first complete game of the season, striking out seven with one walk and rebounding from a two-start stretch in which he was roughed up for 13 runs in 11 innings.

"I had a lot of late movement tonight, something I haven't had for probably the last month," Dickey said.

The Blue Jays gave him plenty of support by tagging Matt Shoemaker (3-4) for eight runs -- seven earned -- over six-plus innings to earn a split of this four-game series and win for only the third time in their last 12 tilts.

Thursday's result halted a string of nine consecutive Anaheim road victories that Shoemaker had started.

Dickey did give up homers to David Freese and Marc Krauss, with Freese finishing 2-for-4 with three RBI in the loss. Mike Trout also collected two hits and scored twice for the Angels.

"He made a couple mistakes, but not many," Angels catcher Chris Iannetta said of Dickey.

Danny Valencia added a solo homer and Jose Bautista knocked in two runs for Toronto. Both Ryan Goins and Steve Tolleson had two hits and two runs scored.

Shoemaker had retired the first six Toronto hitters on just 16 pitches before Valencia began the bottom of the third inning with an opposite-field homer that forged a 1-1 tie. Goins followed with a hard double that preceded a bunt from Tolleson that Shoemaker barehanded, then air-mailed his throw to first to allow Goins to score the go-ahead run.

Dickey, meanwhile, had his third pitch of the night hammered into the second deck by Krauss, in the lineup with Albert Pujols day-to-day with a bruised left hand, to put the Blue Jays in an early hole. The veteran righty set down 16 of the next 18 Angels, however, before Toronto broke the game open in the fifth.

After a walk to Goins and Tolleson's hit-and-run single put runners at the corners, Bautista delivered a two-out hit through the right side that brought in a run. Encarnacion then made it a 6-1 advantage by launching Shoemaker's 2-0 pitch nearly 450 feet into the seats in left center.

"Early on everything was working. But things tend to fall apart," Shoemaker said. "A couple balls were up. A couple unfortunate bounces. Everything is going bad right now."

Trout ended Dickey's strong stretch with a leadoff double in the seventh and came around on Freese's two-bagger for Anaheim's second run.

Shoemaker started the bottom of the seventh but was removed after walking Tolleson and surrendering a double to Josh Donaldson. Both runners wound up scoring, as Bautista plated Tolleson with a sacrifice fly and Kevin Pillar tacked on an RBI single off Vinnie Pestano.

Freese homered with two outs and Trout aboard in the ninth, but Dickey followed with a strikeout of Matt Joyce to finish off his 14th career complete game.

Game Notes

Shoemaker, who hadn't lost on the road since June 27 of last season at Kansas City, has now served up nine homers over his last four starts and 13 in eight outings this season ... Anaheim's Erick Aybar had an 11-game hitting streak snapped after going 0-for-4 ... The Blue Jays are 15-2 when scoring six runs or more and 4-22 when recording five or less ... The Angels lost for just the third time in their last 12 visits to Rogers Centre.