TORONTO -- Kevin Pillar had a chat with slugger Jose Bautista as they practised their swings shortly before the Toronto Blue Jays took on the Minnesota Twins on Monday night. Johnny Moore Jersey . Bautista offered some words of encouragement for the backup outfielder and told him to be aggressive at the plate. It proved to be sage advice. Pillar hit a one-out flare to right field off Casey Fien that drove in pinch-runner Erik Kratz with the winning run to give the Blue Jays a 5-4 walkoff victory at Rogers Centre. "It was a slider off the plate and I was just able to nestle it in somewhere," Pillar said. "And it feels good." Earlier in the inning, Pillar made a miscue in left field by diving for Kurt Suzukis sinking liner. He couldnt come up with the ball and it rolled by him, allowing the Twins to move within a run. Eduardo Escobar followed with a blooper off closer Casey Janssen that landed just inside the left-field line and brought Suzuki home with the tying run. "Baseball is a weird game," Pillar said. "You get a chance to make up for a mistake that you made maybe in the previous inning or early in the game. I was fortunate enough to make that happen." Edwin Encarnacion had staked Toronto (39-26) to an early lead with a three-run homer in the first inning off Minnesota starter Ricky Nolasco. Jose Reyes added a solo homer in the fifth inning for the Blue Jays, who lead the major leagues with 91 home runs. With the win, the Blue Jays remained 5 1/2 games ahead of second-place Baltimore in the American League East division standings. The Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-0 Monday. It was Torontos 16th victory in its last 20 games. "Weve been playing good baseball but you still need to win some of those games like that," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "For the longest time, everything has been going our way. Tonight things didnt go our way but we still managed to come out and pull out a nice win." Minnesota (29-33) scored a pair of quick runs off Toronto starter R.A. Dickey before many fans had taken their seats on a glorious spring evening. Danny Santana hit his first career leadoff home run and Brian Dozier followed with a rainbow shot just inside the foul pole in left field. Dickey settled down after that, retiring 11 straight batters at one point before Josh Willinghams triple in the sixth inning. The Twins loaded the bases but Dustin McGowan came on and got Trevor Plouffe to ground into a double play to end the threat. Janssen (1-0), who blew his second save of the season, gave up three hits in the ninth inning. With the crowd deflated after the Twins tied the game, Minnesota pitcher Matt Guerrier (0-1) walked Dioner Navarro to open the bottom of the ninth. Kratz came in to pinch-run, moved to second on a Reyes single and then scored with room to spare. "You walk the leadoff guy, you give yourself pretty much a mess and anything can happen after that," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. Pillar, who entered the game in the ninth as a defensive replacement for Melky Cabrera, said his defensive miscue was on his mind when he came to the plate. Thinking about his chat with Bautista, Pillar swung and missed the first two times before making contact. "Its a huge roller-coaster of emotions right there," he said. "I guess thats baseball. Theres a lot of ups and downs. You have to find a way to get back centred and deal with the task at hand." Notes: Encarnacion leads the Blue Jays with 20 homers this season. Reyes now has four homers this year. Dozier has 13 home runs while Santana has gone deep twice. ... Dickey allowed five hits, two earned runs, two walks and had three strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. ... Nolasco allowed seven hits, four earned runs and a pair of walks. He had six strikeouts. ... Morales signed a one-year, prorated contract Sunday. The Cuban slugger hit .277 with 23 homers and 80 RBIs with Seattle last season. ... The Twins have hit four leadoff home runs this season. ... Toronto southpaw J.A. Happ is scheduled to start Tuesday night against right-hander Kevin Correia. ... The teams will wrap up the series Wednesday with an early afternoon game. ... Bautista has reached base safely in 62 of 65 games this season. ... Announced attendance was 19,428. The game took two hours 53 minutes to play. Cliff Hagan Jersey . Brassard and Coyotes defenceman Derek Morris were battling for position in the crease when a nudge from Morris sent Brassard on top of Smith late in the third period. Moses Malone Jersey . MLB.com reported that the Dodgers locked the left-hander in for one year at $10 million with up to $4 million in incentives. https://www.cheapspurs.com/286j-david-robinson-jersey-spurs.html . 1. Lions WR Calvin Johnson (6 REC, 101 YDS, 1 TD, 10 targets) leads receivers with 1,299 yards and 12 touchdowns, though his 118.1 receiving yards per game ranks second behind Clevelands Josh Gordon. Gordon (10 REC, 261 YDS, 2 TD, 15 targets) is emerging as a superstar, putting up huge numbers even with Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden at quarterback.LIVERPOOL, N.S. -- Albertas Kelsey Rocque defeated New Brunswicks Jessica Daigle 8-4 on Thursday to lock up a playoff spot at the Canadian junior curling championships. The Edmonton-based team of Rocque, Keely Brown, Taylor McDonald and Claire Tully improved to 8-1 with the victory. Rocque opened the tournament with seven straight victories before dropping a 6-3 decision to Nova Scotias Mary Fay on Wednesday night. The three-team playoff round begins Saturday. "Of course, its always in the back of our minds," Rocque said. "We knew that if we won, we should get a playoff spot. But that (loss), we definitely pushed it aside. We had a rough game last night and we knew we had to come back and play well." B.C.s Kalia Van Osch moved into sole possession of second place at 7-2 after a 7-4 win over Manitobas Meaghan Brezden. Nova Scotias Mary Fay was third at 6-2 while Ontarios Molly Greenwood improved to 6-3 after posting a 9-3 rout of Quebecs Camille Boisvert. The second- and third-place teams will play in the womenss semifinal. Spurs Jerseys 2020. The winner will advance to the gold-medal game Saturday afternoon against the first-place team. In mens play, New Brunswicks Rene Comeau clinched at least a tiebreaker berth with a 5-4 win over Northern Ontarios Tanner Horgan. B.C.s Cameron de Jong beat Braden Calvert 8-6 to hand the Manitoba skip his first loss of the round robin. Manitoba has already clinched a berth in the mens gold-medal game Sunday. Comeau was alone in second place at 7-2 while four rinks were tied at 5-3. Two more draws were scheduled for later Thursday at the Queens Place Emera Centre and the Liverpool Curling Club. Playoff games will be played at Queens Place Emera Centre. Alberta leads all provinces and territories with 16 Canadian junior mens titles since the first tournament in 1950 in Quebec City. Saskatchewan leads with 11 titles since the inaugural junior womens event in 1971 in Vancouver. The 2014 champions will represent Canada at the Feb. 26-March 5 world junior curling championship in Flims, Switzerland. ' ' '