Alek Manoah held the Tampa Bay Rays to just one hit over eight innings, and Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each homered as Tampa Bay lost for the fourth time in the last five games, dropping a 8-1 game Monday to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Both Manoah and Collin McHugh, who opened Monday’s contest for the Rays, kept the game scoreless through the first two innings. Tampa Bay turned away Toronto’s first chance to get on the board in the third as McHugh allowed base hits to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Breyvic Valera, and Ryan Yarbrough walked George Springer to load the bases. But the left-hander got Marcus Semien to pop out, and induced a ground ball from Guerrero to end the inning and keep the game scoreless.
Yarbrough was not able to do the same in the fourth, as a stretch of five straight hits led to four runs, with Gurriel’s single and Randal Grichuk’s double each scoring a run, and Valera’s base hit driving in two more.
Meanwhile, Manoah retired the first 14 Rays hitters in a row before allowing a two-out single to Joey Wendle, the only runner he’d allow to reach Monday.
Toronto added three more runs against Yarbrough in the home half of the fifth, with Bichette hitting his 24th home run of the year to make the game 5-0, and Gurriel and Valera adding RBI singles each.
Guerrero madre it 8-0 in the sixth with a line drive homer to left off Adam Conley, taking over the major league lead with his 45th of the season.
After eight innings of dealing with Manoah, the Rays finally got on the board in the ninth against Trevor Richards with a solo homer, his 25th of the year, with two outs in the inning.
The loss allowed the Blue Jays to gain a game on Tampa Bay in the American League East standings, which now stands at eight games.
Drew Rasmussen (2-1, 3.25 ERA) will look to even the series Tuesday, taking on Jose Berrios (11-7, 3.52 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:07.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
