Austin Meadows‘ two-run single in the bottom of the third inning turned around and early 1-0 deficit and began a run of seven straight runs scored as the Tampa Bay Rays earned their fifth consecutive victory with a 7-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Rays hitters struck out five times in the first two innings against Alek Manoah, but after a George Springersingle off Shane McClanahan in the top of the third gave Toronto an early lead, the Tampa Bay bats went to work against the Blue Jays starter. Mike Zunino was hit by a Manoah pitch to start the inning, and Brett Phillips followed with a double. Ji-Man Choi walked two batters later to load the bases, and after Wander Franco struck out for the second out of the inning, Meadows singled to right to bring in both Zunino and Phillips.
Manoah loaded the bases again in the fourth, allowing a one-out double to Taylor Walls, and Zunino reached on an error by third baeman Cavan Biggio. manoah struck out Phillips, but walked Brandon Lowe to load the bases and hit Ji-Man Choi with a pitch to force in a run, ending the pitcher’s night.
The game stayed 3-1 until the sixth, when Zunino and Phillips each singled to start the inning against reliever Anthony Castro. Both runners moved up a base on a fly ball by Lowe, and Choi drove them both in with a base hit.
Jacob Barnes would allow two more runs in the seventh, giving up a base hit to Joey Wendle and a walk to Kevin Kiermaier. Walls then drove in both runners with a double to center, setting the score.
Andrew Kittredge took over for McClanahan beginning in the fifth, and worked two perfect innings with a pair of strikeouts. Jeffrey Springs struck out five of the six batters he faced, and J.P. Feyereisen worked a perfect ninth to finish off the contest.
Tampa Bay remains 2 1/2 games behind thre Boston Red Sox for the lead in the American League East.
Ryan Yarbrough (5-3, 4.34 ERA) will look to extend the Rays winning streak to six straight Saturday afternoon, taking on Ross Sptripling (3-4, 4.06 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:10.
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.
