Rays Continue to Pound Blue Jays Pitching in Another Rout, This Time 7-3 on Sunday
TORONTO — Get hot, stay hot. It's been a baseball mantra for years. And even though it's only been a couple of days, the Tampa Bay Rays are living that dream right now.
The Rays won again on Sunday, thumping the Toronto Blue Jays 7-3 at Rogers Stadium. After winning 6-2 and 11-5 on Saturday in a doubleheader, the Rays are suddenly a scary team once again. Their pitching has been great during this three-game run, which isn't any surprise, but they've been thumping the baseball, which has definitely come out of nowhere.
They did all their thumping in the fifth inning on Sunday, scoring a season-high six runs. They got three home runs in the inning, from Harold Ramirez, Ji-Man Choi and Randy Arozarena.
“That was a tight ballgame until we had our big inning,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "They had traffic, we had a little bit of traffic but then we broke it open with those home runs.
“We should be feeling pretty good right now. The bats have come to life, and we want to see that continue as much as possible. Three homers, that helps. Any time we can get crooked numbers like that, we’re going to take it. They’ve kind of been few and far between lately for us. (The players?) They’re smiling. They’re still smiling.’’
With the three straight wins, the Rays have moved 43-36 and have tightened logjam in the American League wild-card race. Right now, the New York Yankees are far ahead in the AL East, but the Rays, Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox are taking up the three wild-card spots.
The Red Sox are a half-game ahead of the Blue Jays and one game ahead of the Rays. Tampa Bay is 1.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians for the final spot. The Rays head to Boston next, for a three-game series starting Monday afternoon.
Tampa Bay blew the game open in the fifth inning off of Toronto starter Ross Stripling. Taylor Walls opened the inning with a double and scored on a Yandy Diaz single, but he was thrown out at second for the second out of the inning.
Then the parade started.
Wander Franco singled to right, and then Harold Ramirez homered over the wall in left to make it 4-1. Two pitches later, Ji-Man Choi homered to right. Isaac Paredes then followed with a single and Randy Arozarena homered to right center, making it 7-1.
It was the first time the Rays had hit three home runs in the inning just July 29 last year against the New York Yankees. The six runs in one inning were the most since Sept. 22 last year, also against Stripling and the Blue Jays.
Shane Baz got his first win of the season in his fifth start. He pitched six innings and worked his way around trouble in several innings. He gave up just one run, working around seven hits and two walks. He threw 94 pitches, many of them in sticky situations to get out of trouble..
“The biggest pitches of his career will come with men on base,'' Cash said of Baz. "He tested that pretty well today. He had a knack for dialing into the strike sone when he had guys on base.''
The Rays had 14 hits, and every starter but catcher Rene Pinto had at least one hit. Choi had three hits — he's hitting .290 now — and Diaz, Arozarena and Paredes all had two each. In the last three games, the Rays have scored 24 runs and had 41 hits.
The final score belied the tenseness that actually took place in the bottom of the ninth. Cristofer Ogando, who was called up from Triple-A Durham for the weekend, pitched two innings and gave up a run in the eighth to make it 7-2.
Shawn Armstrong started the ninth for the Rays, but he gave up singles to Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette. Biggio scored on a double to right from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who had three hits on the night. He then walked Teoscar Hernandez, loading the bases and bringing the tying run to the plate.
Cash summomed reliever Jason Adam, and he struck out Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk to end the game.
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