Cobb needed 53 pitches to get through the first two innings. His second strikeout, coming against Evan Longoria, was the 1,000th of his career. Toronto had won five of six and led the AL East by two games before arriving in Tampa Bay, but it gave up a total of 13 runs in the sixth and seventh innings the last two nights and has fallen into a tie with Boston atop the division.
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Matt Duffy cleared the bases with a three-run double off the wall in left field in a five-run sixth inning, while rookie Blake Snell gave up one run and struck out seven in six solid innings for the Rays. “It started off a little bit shaky, but I feel like that play [in the 1st] that Logan Forsythe made with the shift over to the right a little bit, made a throw across his body and got (Troy Tulowitzki) by a decent amount really settled me down”. With two outs, Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson reached base, putting the unsafe Encarnacion at the plate. Cobb got Michael Saunders to ground out for the second out of the inning on a 91.3 miles per hour sinker.
One of his two walks led to a run.
Ryan Garton worked the eighth inning and retired the side in order on just eight pitches.
The third inning looked to be the one that would cause Chris Archer to unravel.
That he didn’t get outs consistently during the Blue Jays two-run first was largely a result, Cobb said, of the fact that he hadn’t been on a big-league mound in two years, not a lack of stuff.
The Jays trailed 7-1 going into the ninth and rallied for four runs but could not fight all the way back. “When you do that, you find yourself in a situation like that where you’ve got bases loaded, nobody out and nobody’s hit a ball hard yet”.
Toronto Blue Jays’ Michael Saunders, right, scores in front of Tampa Bay Rays catcher Bobby Wilson on a two-run single by Devon Travis during the seventh inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla. He went 2 and ⁄3 innings but pitched 85 pitches in his second shortest start of the season. Matt Duffy made it 2-1 with a sacrifice fly. Facing 17-game victor J.A. Happ, the Rays jumped ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first, getting an RBI double from Evan Longoria and a sacrifice fly from Matt Duffy. Toronto is 6-9 against Tampa Bay and 25-16 against the rest of the AL East. The Blue Jays had the call reviewed because they thought it could have been a home run, but the ruling stood and Donaldson remained on second base. The Blue Jays counter with J.A. Happ (17-4, 3.23 ERA).
Forsythe had three of the Rays’ 13 hits and scored twice.
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Jays’ 21-year-old closer Roberto Osuna earned his 30th save of the season in Sunday’s win, becoming the 11th pitcher in franchise history to reach the single season mark.
