MONTREAL (CBC) - If this were the bad old days in baseball, the first pitch thrown to Jayson Werth on Saturday night would knock the journeyman outfielder right on his butt.

These days, of course, that sort of approach by Toronto starter A.J. Burnett to the Friday night's Philly hero would result in an instant ejection and a warning to both benches not to do it again.

Werth, who is hardly on his way to the Hall of Fame, hit three home runs (including a Grand Slam) on the way to a club record-tying eight runs batted in as the Phillies cruised to a 10-3 victory over the visiting Blue Jays.

He tied an actual member of Cooperstown's hallowed hall in doing so, by the way - Phillies legend Mike Schmidt.

Werth's night sent rookie David Purcey, on an emergency call-up from the minors because a rainout last weekend pushed the regular starters back a day, off to a redundant early shower after the clouds had dumped all over him for three innings.

So here's Burnett, under pressure both to make sure Werth's night was a dog having its day, and to get the Jays back on another winning streak.

Winners of four straight coming into this three-game, intra-league affair, Toronto dropped two games back of .500 thanks to Werth and sit at 21-23, 4-4 for the road trip.

Philadelphia is 24-19.

Offence still asleep

Burnett is 3-4 with a 4.94 earned run average this year and coming off two-straight losses. He hasn't lost three in a row since a bad five-game run in 2005 as a Florida Marlin.

He's also 4-7 in 14 lifetime starts against Philadelphia.

Toronto's offence still isn't producing any runs - they've scored just 21 in the first eight games of the road trip and that's not nearly enough.

But the Phillies are offering some hope to all bad offences by continually trotting out Adam Eaton, seemingly against all the laws of logic. The nine-year veteran righthander is 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA this season, but that's in eight starts.

What's going for him is the club is 4-4 in games Eaton has begun, meaning he's keeping it close enough for his teammates to still have a chance.

You might not that Eaton is 6-6 with a 2.91 ERA in 17 career starts against American League clubs, and three six shutout innings against the Jays last May.

An honest hero

Bringing us back to Werth, who was nothing if not honest about his achievements.

"Anything can happen on any given day, I guess," he said after Friday's masterful performance that included a three-run blast in the second inning, the Slam in the third and a solo shot off reliever Jesse Litsch in the sixth.

"This is crazy. It's not like I was trying to do anything like that. It just happened.

"I don't know what else to say," he said. "It's just crazy."

That's probably what Jays' manager John Gibbons said at the time, come to think of it.

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