The Blue Jays are now deadlocked atop the AL East with the Baltimore Orioles, sitting at 64-50.
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Snell ran into trouble again in the second and could not finish the inning.
“He’s having some kind of year, he really is”, manager John Gibbons said after Toronto won the three-game series over Tampa. “He found a way to get through it. Bases loaded, no outs against that club at the end of his outing, to get out of that without giving up a run is pretty impressive”. Despite a great all around season, the Rays have been like an Achilles heal for the Blue Jays winning four of the five games they have played already this year.
Tulowitzki added his fifth RBI in the sixth, ripping a hard single to right that scored Edwin Encarnacion from second.
Happ (15-3, 3.09 ERA) will be facing left-hander Blake Snell (3-4, 2.95 ERA) at Rogers Centre.
“Drew battled his tail off tonight”, Forsythe said.
Tulowitzki stroked a three-run home run and recorded a season-high five RBIs, two off his career-best of seven. The Rays had 18 hits in a 13-7 victory over Boston on June 27.
“It’s something Pete stressed to us at the start of the year”, Happ said.
Alex Cobb logged three innings for the Durham Bulls throwing 58 pitches with 42 for strikes. A trio of Jays’ relievers came in and worked the final three frames holding the Rays’ offense to just one hit.
Forsythe connected on Marco Estrada’s fourth pitch of the game.
Bautista is the second Blue Jays outfielder to go on the disabled list this week.
Toronto took over first place in the AL East when the Orioles lost 1-0 to Oakland later Wednesday. Lake has appeared in 19 games for the Blue Jays this season and hit.206/.289/.382 in 38 plate appearances. Brad Miller has hit 98 times with 52 runs, 20 homers and 48 runs.
The team is hoping Bautista won’t be out longer than the requisite two weeks, but in the meantime, Darrell Ceciliani is expected to get the bulk of the at bats versus right-handed pitching.
Donaldson popped up to foul territory and though it appeared right fielder Steven Souza Jr. was in position to make the catch, he dropped the ball, keeping Donaldson’s at-bat alive. “I thought I had a chance and then it was a little bit farther than I thought”, Souza said. The Jays have an off-day on Thursday before Francisco Liriano opens a three-game set versus visiting Houston on Friday night.
The Toronto Blue Jays will be without one of their best power hitters for at least 15 days. After the game, he was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo with a corresponding move to be made, likely for a fresh arm in the bullpen.
Happ, who posted a 4.22 ERA in going 11-11 with Toronto in 2014, never let an inning get out of hand versus the Rays.
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The three early runs were all J.A. Happ needed as he mowed the Rays down logging six scoreless frames allowing just four hits, striking out seven, and walking two. With the Pittsburgh Pirates, Happ finished the season with a 7-2 and an earned run average of 1.85.
