Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs and Dylan Cease struck out 12 batters while picking up his first win for Toronto as the Blue Jays defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 in the opener of a three-game series on Monday in Anaheim, Calif.

Guerrero extended his hitting streak to 11 games. Nathan Lukes drove in two runs and Eloy Jimenez had two hits for Toronto, which won its second straight game.

Cease (1-0) allowed two runs on five hits and two walks over five innings and took over the major league lead in strikeouts with 44. He left after throwing 110 pitches, 69 for strikes.

Jeff Hoffman struck out three in the ninth to pick up his third save.

Nolan Schanuel had a double, a run and an RBI and Zach Neto singled, walked, stole two bases and scored a run for Los Angeles, which struck out 18 times while taking its third straight defeat.

Reid Detmers (1-2) gave up four runs on five hits over six-plus innings. He walked two and struck out five.

Los Angeles took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Schanuel hit a two-out, opposite-field double down the left field line and scored on a single by Jorge Soler.

Toronto took a 2-1 lead in the third on Guerrero’s two-run homer, a 430-foot drive to center that drove in Davis Schneider, who had opened the inning with a walk.

The Angels tied it 2-2 in the bottom of the third. Neto led off with a walk, went to second on an infield single by Mike Trout, and advanced to the third on the front end of a double steal. Schanuel then drove in Neto with a sacrifice fly to center.

The Blue Jays regained the lead, 3-2, in the sixth inning when Guerrero led off with a single and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Lenyn Sosa.

Toronto extended the lead to 4-2 in the seventh on an RBI single by Lukes, and the visitors made it 5-2 in the ninth on an RBI groundout by Lukes.

–Field Level Media