Power outage: Blue Jays, Scutaro pound Tribe, 10-6

TORONTO (AP) — What started as a pregame joke turned into a rare display of power from Marco Scutaro.

Not known for his slugging, the shortstop hit two of Toronto’s season-high five home runs and matched a career-high with four RBIs, leading the Blue Jays to a 10-6 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday.

Scutaro had a solo homer in the fifth and a three-run shot in the sixth, the first multihomer game of his career.

A career .264 hitter before this season, Scutaro has been playing every day for Toronto and has responded. He’s batting .286 with eight homers, one shy of his career high.

“This is my best year, I feel so far, just because of playing time,” Scutaro said. “That’s pretty much what I’m trying to focus on, being consistent.”

Scutaro had homered just once since April 30 before Wednesday’s game, a two-run shot on June 23, and heard about the dry spell from Toronto starter Ricky Romero.

“We actually talked about it today before the game,” Romero said with a chuckle. “I was like ’Let’s go man. When was the last time you hit a home run?’ I was just joking with and he goes out and hits two today, which is kind of funny.”

Scutaro made sure to seek out Romero after his first drive.

“After the first home run, he came and I looked at him and he kind of just tapped me on the head, just kind of laughing,” Romero said. “He keeps this clubhouse going most of the time. He kind of jokes around, he’s a great teammate to have.”

Aaron Hill, Alex Rios and Vernon Wells all hit solo home runs, Toronto’s first five-homer game since July 23, 2006, against the New York Yankees.

All four solo shots came off Cleveland right-hander Carl Pavano, the second time in his career he’s allowed four home runs in one game. He also did it May 11, 2005, against Seattle while pitching for the Yankees.

Pavano (8-8) had won back-to-back starts coming in but was roughed up in this one, allowing seven runs and seven hits, six for extra bases, in 42‚Ñ3 innings. He walked two and struck out four.

“It’s just one of those games where I struggled to get the ball down,” Pavano said. “I left a lot of balls up. I don’t think I got a groundball until the fourth inning. The balls that I did leave up, they hammered and made me pay.”

The Indians lost for the ninth time in 13 games.

“I felt offensively we were better tonight,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “We had good swings. We’re still nowhere near where we need to be but that’s a push in the right direction.”