Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe tags out Blue Jay Nathan Lukes, who tried to stretch a single in the third inning of Friday night’s series opener at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.Â
Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe tags out Blue Jay Nathan Lukes, who tried to stretch a single in the third inning of Friday night’s series opener at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.Â
The Blue Jays might have won the Grapefruit League title earlier this spring, but wins in Florida are a lot harder to come by during the regular season.
The minor-league park is known as very hitter friendly, but someone forgot to tell the Jays, who had their three-game win streak snapped with a 3-1 loss on Friday night. That dropped the Jays’ record to 25-25 and moved them back into a tie with the Boston Red Sox for second place in the American League East.
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Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen struck out three across six scoreless innings to earn the victory. The loss went to Jays lefty Eric Lauer, who surrendered three runs on six hits and a pair of walks during his second official start of the season.
Here’s everything you need to know about the game:
Running into outs
The Jays appeared to have something going in the top of the third when Jonatan Clase hit a one-out double off Rasmussen. Nathan Lukes followed with a single to left that was hit too hard to score the speedy Clase. That should have put runners on the corners for the top of the order, but Lukes made an ill-advised decision to make a run for second. Catcher Danny Jansen threw a strike to second baseman Brandon Lowe for the easy out. Bo Bichette then stepped into the box and flew out to right, which ended the inning without Vladimir Guerrero Jr. getting to the plate.
Double dingers
Lauer escaped a couple of early jams but got into more trouble in the third. Lowe, who homered twice in last week’s series against the Jays, went deep again on a 2-and-1 slider. The two-run shot was Lowe’s ninth of the season and put the Rays in front by two. Curtis Mead added a solo homer in the fourth when he lifted a 2-and-0 cutter over the wall in left. Lauer has made five appearances for the Jays this season and has yet to complete five innings in any of them.
Missed chances
The Jays had opportunities to score in almost every inning; they just didn’t do anything with them. In the fourth, Addison Barger struck out to strand a pair of runners. In the fifth, two runners were on when Bichette hit a scorching 110-m.p.h. grounder to third. Junior Caminero made a highlight-reel grab, then started a double-play to end the inning.
In the seventh, Rays reliever Mason Montgomery walked the bases loaded with nobody out and yet the Jays settled for just one run, after Clase hit into a double-play and Lukes flew out to centre. In the eighth, they had two runners on before Alejandro Kirk grounded out to second. The Jays finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners.
Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the
Star. Follow him on Twitter: or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca.
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