Rays Win Ninth Straight Game, Defeat Blue Jays

A rally in the eighth inning sparked by Randy Arozarena and Manuel Margot lifted the Tampa Bay Rays over the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-1. The Rays have now won nine straight games, as they remain one game behind Boston for the division lead. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays have now dropped four straight games and have fallen 4.5 games back from the division lead.

Starting Pitching

Tampa Bay was held to under seven runs for the first time since May 14th and Toronto could only manage to score one run. However, we did see a very good pitching battle as the two starters were dueling. On the bump for the Rays was Shane McClanahan. The lefty pitched five innings allowing one run on four hits. McClanahan also struck out four and walked two batters. For Toronto, it was Robbie Ray, who had arguably his best start of the season. The former Diamondback went seven strong innings, allowing only one run on five hits while walking none and striking out seven. Ray has not given up a walk in his past 39.2 innings.

Offense

While Tampa Bay’s offense underperformed on Saturday night, they put up enough runs to get the win. Tampa Bay had three guys that went 2-for-4, including rookie Taylor Walls who made his MLB debut. The 24-year-old is the Rays No. 7 prospect according to MLB.com, and was promoted to shortstop after Willy Adames was traded to the Brewers. Walls had two doubles in his debut, and also advanced to third on a ball that got away from the catcher, and then proceeded to get home as the throw went off the third-base bag.

Tampa Bay hit one home run on Saturday – Mike Zunino’s 11th overall and sixth in his past 11 games.

On the other hand, Toronto did not have enough offense to support Robbie Ray’s terrific performance. The Blue Jays scored only one run – Vlad walked and then scored on a Teoscar Hernandez double that got past right fielder Manual Margot after bouncing off the right-field wall.

Up Next

The Tampa Bay Rays will play Game 3 of the four-game series on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays. Hyun Jin Ryu will start for Toronto, while Michael Wacha takes the bump for Tampa Bay. First pitch is scheduled for 1:07 PM EST.