,\' said Dickey, who gave up five hits, struck out four and only

TORONTO -- This time, the seventh inning was a breeze for R. Saints #51 Jersey .A. Dickey. The veteran Toronto knuckleballer, who had made it through six innings in his previous six starts but each time failed to get out the seventh, turned in his strongest performance of the season Saturday, going 8-1/3 innings as the Blue Jays defeated the Oakland Athletics 5-2 at Rogers Centre. "I feel like Ive been right on the edge of a game like this for a long time," said Dickey, who gave up five hits, struck out four and only walked one in improving to 5-4. "Thats whats been encouraging. "Thankfully today, I was able to break through the seventh and get into the eighth and ninth." Dickey received a standing ovation from 29,372 fans when he left with one out and two on in the ninth. The As made it interesting, getting the tying run to the plate in that final at-bat but Brett Cecil got Jed Lowrie on a sacrifice fly and struck out Alberto Callaspo for his third save and Torontos fifth straight win. The win moved the Blue Jays 2.5 games up on the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees atop the American League East. The last time Toronto was alone in first place this late in the season was July 6, 2000. Dickey, who won the 2012 National League Cy Young Award with the New York Mets, lowered his earned run average to 3.95, the first time its been under 4.00 since he joined the Blue Jays in 2013. "Its great for our team to be able to keep the momentum that weve been generating over the past week-and-a-half or so," said Dickey, who retired 19 of 21 hitters he faced at one stretch. "Its nice to feel like you did your part in that." "He was dealing it," said Toronto manager John Gibbons. "He really was. He was strong. He was very efficient. That particular pitch he throws, when its on its tough to do anything with it. "You can usually tell early on when hes got his good one going and today he did." Brett Lawrie had a home run for the Blue Jays while Melky Cabrera had two hits and two RBIs, and Jose Reyes had a pair of hits as Toronto (28-22) won for the 10th time in their last 12 ball games. They did their damage on Jesse Chavez (4-2), who gave up four runs, two of which were unearned, and eight hits. The Blue Jays used their speed and took advantage of some sloppy defence from Oakland (30-19). "We generated some runs today," said Gibbons as Reyes scored twice from second on balls that never left the infield and Anthony Gose plated from first on a bobble in left field. "The old saying is speed never goes in slumps." After Oakland opened the scoring in the second inning on a Yeonis Cespedes solo home run to straightaway centre field, the Blue Jays tied it up in the third. Gose, who reached on a fielders choice, was moving first to third on Cabreras two-out, opposite field single when left-fielder Craig Gentry bobbled the ball, allowing the fleet-footed Gose to fly around third and slide into the plate ahead of the throw. Toronto took the lead for good with three runs in the fifth. After Lawrie led off the inning by slamming his eighth home run into the Blue Jays bullpen to make it 2-1, they added some insurance, again courtesy of speed and shoddy defence by the As. Gose slapped a sharp single the other way with one-out and moved up to third on a single by Reyes. After a wild pitch advanced Reyes to second, Cabrera hit a ground ball to first baseman Brandon Moss, who booted it as Gose was coming in to score and then flipped it past a covering Chavez, which allowed Reyes to scamper home, punctuating the run with a run head-first slide, making it 4-1. Reyes repeated the feat in the seventh to put the Blue Jays up 5-1. After a lead-off double, he scored all the way from second when Cabrera hit a routine groundball to shortstop but the As made the play too slowly, again allowing Reyes to slide across home plate head-first before Moss could throw him out. "Thats the way I play the game when Im healthy," said Reyes, who spent the early part of the season on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. "Stealing bases. Sliding all over the place. "When Im pain-free Im able to do that stuff, so Im feeling happy. Not only for me, but for the whole team because were playing really good baseball. Its always fun when youre winning." Toronto will go for the three-game sweep of the A.L. West leaders on Sunday afternoon. Notes: The Blue Jays and As wrap up a three-game weekend series on Sunday when Oakland LHP Drew Pomeranz goes against Toronto LHP J.A. Happ. . . Going into Saturdays game, Torontos Edwin Encarnacion led the league in May with 11 home runs and 62 total bases and is second in RBIs with 24 and T2 with 16 extra-base hits in 22 games. . . Since 2010, the Blue Jays lead the Majors with 553 home runs prior to the all-star break, well ahead of the New York Yankees, who are second with 489. Jimmy Graham Saints Jersey . 3 seed Phillip Kohlschreiber from Germany. Defending champion Marin Cilic also reached the semifinals -- his fourth in Zagreb -- defeating fellow Croat Ivan Dodig. German qualifier Bjorn Phau beat Dudi Sela of Israel to reach his first semifinals in nearly five years. Brodrick Bunkley Saints Jersey . The win moved the Jets to within four points of Phoenix (Coyotes home to Florida Thursday) and two points of ninth-place Dallas (Dallas in Philadelphia Thursday). Jets next play Saturday at home to Carolina (TSN 1290), before heading out of a five-game road trip that starts in Dallas Monday (TSN Jets, TSN 1290).EDMONTON - The Edmonton Oilers are on their second six-game losing streak of the season and is hoping to avoid posting its longest skid since dropping 11 in a row in 2011 as they host the Nashville Predators Sunday night. The club will try to build off its late effort in Fridays 4-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes. Ben Scrivens will get the start in net against the Predators, while Ales Hemsky (ankle injury) and Andrew Ference (head injury) will be out of the line-up. The Oilers allowed the Coyotes to score three times in a 4:02 span of the first period and trailed 4-0 at the three-minute mark of the second frame. Hendricks, though, found the back of the net in the middle period for his first goal with the Oilers, then David Perron and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored six minutes apart in the third period in a spirited comeback attempt. "We found a way to bring some energy and bring some life back to our game, but we got to try to do that for 60 minutes," said Nugent-Hopkins. Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots in defeat. He is 10-6-3 with a 2.41 GAA in 20 career games versus the Predators. His first start with the Oilers came against the Preds on Nov. 28 and he recorded a 33-save shutout. Ben Scrivens, acquired from Los Angeles the same day Devan Dubnyk was traded to the Predators, has lost both of his previous games against Nashville. Edmonton, which has won three of four and nine of its last 13 at home versus Nashville, is expected to be without defenseman Andrew Ference tonight after he left Fridays loss with a head injury. Winners in four of their previouus five games, the Predators got a career-high four goals from Eric Nystrom on Friday versus Calgary, but also saw the Flames score twice in the third period to tie the game before Nashville ultimately dropping a 5-4 decision in a shootout. Ben Grubbs Saints Jersey. Defenseman Roman Josi scored as the second shooter in the third round to extend the tiebreaker, but Calgarys Sean Monahan beat Devan Dubnyk between the legs as the next skater and Ryan Ellis had his attempt stopped. Nashville has now split the first two of a four-game road trip despite Nystrom notching the first four-goal game in franchise history. He upped his season goal total to 11 and had never before scored more than two goals in a game. "It was just one of those nights. Its just frustrating that it was on the short end of the stick. Its a game we wish we could have back," said Nystrom, who was selected 10th overall by Calgary in the 2002 draft. "Its nice scoring goals, but not when its on the losing side." Dubnyk stopped 27 shots for the Predators and has allowed nine goals on 60 shots in two starts since being acquired from the Edmonton Oilers on Jan. 15 in exchange for forward Matt Hendricks. Selected 14th overall by the Oilers in the 2004 draft, Dubnyk was 11-17-2 with a 3.36 goals against average in 32 games (29 starts) with Edmonton this season before the trade. It is unknown if he will face his former club tonight or if rookie backup Carter Hutton will get the call instead. Hutton, who has never faced the Oilers, has won four straight starts, including all three since Dubnyk was acquired. ' ' '