Marco Estrada allowed five runs over five-plus innings in Saturday’s loss to the Rays.
Advertisement
Toronto’s lead in the division was trimmed to one-half game over Boston, which played later Saturday.
The Rays have Chris Archer on the mound to face J.A. Happ of the Blue Jays.
After winning just 39 of their first 100 games, the Rays have rebounded to go 18-15 in their last 33 and they started September with a bang, belting a trio of late home runs to snap a 2-2 tie.
That moment in the first inning, when Josh Donaldson launched an 85-mph changeup into Tropicana Field’s B-ring catwalk was one of them and that moment two pitches later when Edwin Encarnacion drove a loud double into the left-center field gap to plate Donaldson was another.
It’s been a rough year for Russell Martin behind the plate.
Rays lose a chance to sweep the AL East leaders.
Martin hit his 17th homer on a 3-0 pitch from Kevin Jepsen (2-6).
Five Toronto relievers allowed two hits in 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
Matt Duffy then lined a ball off the LF wall, mere feet from being a grand slam, scoring three more and effectively ending Estrada’s night and ruining the three paragraphs I had written about the Estrada Whisperer’s triumphant return.
“And maybe that third one will be eluding me in some games for a while but hopefully with the work that I’ll get in between starts here this week I’ll get back to feeling like I can go to any pitch at any point in the game”. Toronto’s offense has taken three losses in the last five games, averaging just 4.2 runs per game behind some solid starts from the rotation.
By the time the fifth inning was in the books, Snell had already passed the 90-pitch mark but had settled in for the long haul, retiring the last 10 batters he faced. 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. 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 Rays didn’t get their first hit off Estrada until Logan Forsythe led off the fourth inning with a single.
The Rays stay home for a three-game series against the Orioles, while Toronto now goes to the Yankees for a three-game series. “We put two runs on the board early and then didn’t scratch another across until it was too late”. His strike zone was inconsistent for both sides which led to a lot of stares in from the mound, batters glancing back, and barking from the dugout. For the rest of the inning, Boxberger managed to allow two runs to tie the game on two hits and two walks, losing Archer’s ability to pick up the win.
“(Cobb) got a couple of innings under his belt”, said Gibbons.
At the end of the day, Roberto Osuna got his 30th save of the season but on this day, the true save might have gone to John Gibbons.
Blue Jays: OF Melvin Upton Jr., hitting just.185 (20 for 108) against right-handers since the All-Star break, didn’t start with Archer pitching.
Advertisement
RHP Joaquin Benoit struck out three in the seventh inning Sunday, giving him 500 strikeouts for his career.
