Tampa Bay 5, Toronto 3
When: 1:10 PM ET, Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Temperature:
Indoors
Umpires:
Home -
Lazaro Diaz, 1B -
Mike Everitt, 2B -
Paul Emmel, 3B -
Tim Timmons
Attendance:
14257
By The Sports Xchange
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- For the second day in a row, the Tampa Bay Rays got a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning, with Steven Souza hitting a three-run shot for his second homer of the game, in a 5-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday at Tropicana Field.
The teams split the four-game series.
Souza, who had the first multi-homer game of his career, matched a personal best with four hits, having also doubled off the wall in the second inning and singled in the fourth.
Souza's solo home run in the sixth extended the Rays' streak to 18 games with at least one homer, a franchise record that started in September 2015. The previous mark was set in April-May 2013.
One day after Logan Forsythe hit a two-run homer in the eighth, the Rays (2-2) got to the Toronto bullpen again, with Gavin Floyd giving up Souza's blast.
Toronto (2-2) led 3-1 behind a solid start from J.A. Happ, who pitched into the seventh and left with the lead.
Tampa Bay was 7-60 last year when trailing after seven innings, but now they have two wins in the first series of the season.
For the second straight game, the Rays let a reliever who came in for the eighth stay in for the ninth -- just as Alex Colome got the win in closing out Tuesday's victory, converted starter Erasmo Ramirez (1-0) got the final six outs in his season debut.
Ramirez gave up a single to lead off the ninth but got Russell Martin to hit into a double play with a liner to right center to end the game.
The difference in the game early on was a three-run homer by Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson -- his second home run in three games -- off Rays starter Matt Moore in the third.
After allowing no hits and striking out four in the first two innings, Moore gave up a single to Ezequiel Carrera, then hit No. 9 batter Darwin Barney to put two on against the top of the order.
With one out, Donaldson crushed a three-run shot to left field, the only real mistake that Moore made in five innings.
The Rays answered with a run in the fourth, loading the bases on singles by Evan Longoria, Steve Pearce and Souza and getting an RBI single from Tim Beckham.
Down 3-1 with the bases loaded and one out, the Rays couldn't convert, with Kevin Kiermaier striking out on three pitches and Curt Casali popping out to second to end the inning.
Happ gave up six hits in the first five innings but held the Rays to one run. Toronto limited Tampa Bay to nine runs in the first three games of the series.
Moore lasted only five innings, throwing 102 pitches and giving up five hits, though the only runs came in on Donaldson's homer. He struck out six batters and walked two.
NOTES: Facing a left-hander for the first time this season, the Rays sat three left-handed-hitting newcomers who had been starting in Corey Dickerson, Logan Morrison and Brad Miller. The three were a combined 2-for-31 in the first three games, the only hits being two solo home runs by Dickerson. Wednesday's lineup had Brandon Guyer, Steve Pearce and Tim Beckham taking their places, with a combined four at-bats in the first three games. ... Tuesday night's ninth-inning reversal -- ruling interference on the Jays' Jose Bautista sliding into second and thus changing a 4-3 Jays lead into a 3-2 Rays win -- was just the second time ever that an overturned call on a game's final play changed the outcome of the game. The Pirates beat the Giants 2-1 in 2014 when Starling Marte, initially ruled out at the plate after a triple, was found safe for the winning run upon review. ... Bautista drew three walks on Tuesday night. Since 2010, only Cincinnati's Joey Votto (620) has drawn more walks than Bautista's 579. Bautista led the American League with 110 walks last year.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
| Toronto |
|
Tampa Bay |
|
J.A. Happ
|
Player |
Matt Moore
|
|
No Decision |
W/L |
No Decision |
|
6.0 |
IP |
5.0 |
|
4 |
Strikeouts |
6 |
|
7 |
Hits |
5 |
|
3.00 |
ERA |
5.40 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| Toronto
|
6 |
1 |
9 |
.188 |
12 |
10 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Tampa Bay
|
10 |
2 |
17 |
.303 |
17 |
7 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
For more information, contact us