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Mike Trout and Erick Aybar of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim celebrate after a two-run double by Marc Krauss against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 20, 2015, at Rogers Centre.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

Gimpy-kneed Michael Saunders was lounging in front of his locker surrounded by several of his Toronto Blue Jays teammates, killing time on Wednesday before the game against the Los Angeles Angels.

Saunders had just returned from a trip earlier in the week to Pensacola, Fla., after a visit to orthopedic guru Dr. James Andrews, and everybody wanted to learn the news.

When an athlete makes the journey to see the good doctor, it usually results in a subsequent news release being distributed by the team that begins something like: "Joe Blow successfully underwent elbow replacement surgery today … "

The news was infinitely better for Saunders, however, with Andrews confirming the team's diagnosis that he was suffering from nothing more than a bone bruise to his left knee.

It was a take-two-Aspirins-and-call-me-in-a-couple-weeks kind of a visit.

If only the diagnosis to fix what ails the Blue Jays were that simple.

L.A. starter Jered Weaver (3-4) was mostly able to stifle the Blue Jays' bats to help lead the Angels (21-19) to a 4-3 victory at Rogers Centre to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-four series.

The Blue Jays (18-24) only had five hits in support of Drew Hutchison (3-1), who served up the four runs off six hits in 62/3 innings.

Toronto's Steve Delabar entered the game in the seventh inning in relief of Hutchison with runners at first and second and two out and Toronto leading 3-2.

Delabar's first mistake was to throw a wild pitch that advanced both runners into scoring position.

His second was to serve up a sumptuous-looking slider that Marc Krauss delighted in taking to left field for a double that scored both runs, and provided the Angels with their winning margin.

Saunders's knee concerns began in February when he had surgery to remove a damaged portion of his meniscus, which he injured in spring training.

"It's something where it will heal and my body will get acclimated to the bone on bone instead of having the meniscus there," Saunders explained. "Like we foresaw, it's going to take a little bit of time."

As a result of the surgery, Saunders played in only nine games, returning to the disabled list on May 10 after knee soreness flared up. At the time, the Blue Jays said he would miss anywhere from another four to six weeks.

It was not been the kind of welcome that Saunders was anticipating after the Blue Jays obtained the Victoria native during the off-season in a trade with the Seattle Mariners.

Instead of patrolling left field with regularity, Saunders has had to watch the team's struggles mostly from a distance. "It's not the way I wanted to start my Blue Jays career," he said.

Saunders said all the players are well aware that the team has not been playing to its potential. But he fervently believes things are getting close to clicking.

"But one hit there, one pitch here and we're right back," he said. "And once we kind of sync up and we're all on the same page; this is a really good club. And luckily with us, feeling like we're not playing great baseball right now, we're only four back in a real tight AL East.

"It's a long season and at the end of the year it's kind of anyone's division. And some teams are clicking right now. We're not. And just to be four back at this point, when we start going we're going to be in contention by the end of the year."

Actually, the Blue Jays were 41/2 games off the pace at the start of play Wednesday, but that's quibbling.

Hutchison breezed through the first three innings before stumbling in the fourth, during which two singles sandwiched around a hit batsman loaded the bases with none out.

L.A. slugger Albert Pujols was the player plunked in the left hand by a 93-mile-an-hour Hutchison fastball that rode in. It hurt, but Pujols stayed in the game until the fifth when he was forced out with a left-hand contusion.

Hutchison regrouped to get a strikeout of David Freese, but then issued another walk to Matt Joyce to force in the game's first run. The Toronto pitcher was fortunate to get out of the inning without any more damage.

Toronto struck right back in the bottom of the fourth, rapping out three hits, including doubles by Chris Colabello and Danny Valencia, to take a 3-1 lead.

A solo home run blast by Mike Trout in the fifth cut the Toronto lead to 3-2.

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