TORONTO _ With Blake Snell the latest Ray to hit the injured list, headed for Monday arthroscopic elbow surgery that will sideline him at least into September, consider all they are now without:
Their Opening Day starter, Snell. Their primary opener, Ryne Stanek. Their planned closer, Jose Alvarado. Their top home run and RBI man, Brandon Lowe. Their Gold Glove center fielder, Kevin Kiermaier. Their powerful corner infielder, Yandy Diaz.
And that's just the guys who got hurt in the last few weeks. Others still sidelined include starter Tyler Glasnow, plus Tommy John surgery rehabbers Jose De Leon, Anthony Banda and Brent Honeywell, and infielders Christian Arroyo and Daniel Robertson.
So as the Rays took the field Friday before beating the Blue Jays, 3-1, there was an understandable balance between being beat up and feeling beaten down.
"Oh, it's rough," manager Kevin Cash said. "There's no doubt. We're going to find out a lot about ourselves over the next month, four-six weeks, whenever Blake gets back. You can't deny that.
"But we're not in a position where we can let it affect us too much because we're right in the thick of things. We've got to continue to find ways to play good baseball and sketch out some wins here."
They were headed that direction Friday, getting strong pitching from Ryan Yarbrough, two-out run-scoring hits by Austin Meadows and Travis d'Arnaud and a break on an umpiring call that negated a run the Jays looked to have scored in the fourth.
But are the Rays, 59-47 after losing seven of their previous nine and 23 of 40, going to be able to get back to winning regularly?
"We're definitely a little banged up right now," said infielder Matt Duffy, who last week returned from a season-long stint on the injured list. "At the same time, you look around there's certainly guys in this room capable of picking up the slack. You look at the Yankees, early in the year they lost the whole friggin' team and they did just fine.
"Every team goes through stretches like that where they get banged up and you hope they're not serious things where they'll be back soon and you can keep the ship afloat or better in the meantime."
But even without Snell, who had been on his best streak of the season in pairing with Charlie Morton as their only two fulltime traditional starters?
"We're going to have to find ways to continue to be creative," Cash said. "I think it's fair to assume we're going to have to use some guys that are in Triple-A, and lengthen out some of the guys that are here."
So that covers Brendan McKay, who could be back as soon as next week, and maybe Jake Faria or Austin Pruitt on the front end, and then Yarbrough, Jalen Beeks and Yonny Chirinos, who is already stretched out.
But what that doesn't cover is the Rays making a deal in advance of Wednesday's trade deadline to take Snell's spot.
"I don't foresee us going out and finding a starter," Cash said. "You're not going to find a starter that's going to replace Blake Snell. We certainly have the depth and are equipped to handle a big workload. It's going to take these guys really getting on a good run to do that."
Pitching coach Kyle Snyder said they've got the pieces, the ability and the team-first bond to do so.
Yarbrough did his part Friday, delivered another in what's been an impressive run of strong outings, following Diego Castillo's quick opening frame by working 5 1/3 innings, allowing only one run on four hits.
The Jays looked to have at least a second run in a bit of an odd sequence in the fourth. With two outs, the got their first hit of the night when Justin Smoak singled off Yarbrough, then a second when Randal Grichuk singled. Freddy Galvis then laced a ball down the left-field line that Tommy Pham tried to make a play on after it caromed off the side wall but knocked into the stands.
Grichuk had followed Smoak home and was in the dugout, but after several rounds of discussions and a replay review, he was sent back to third, and Yarbrough got them out of the inning tied 1-1.
That helped because the Rays added two on in the fifth, loading the bases on a Willy Adames walk, a Ji-Man Choi and a two-out Meadows walk, then getting a two-run single by d'Arnaud, who has 18 RBIs in his last 16 games and 35 in his 47 with the Rays. He also batted cleanup for the first time Friday, the Rays team-record 11th to do so this season.
Yarbrough worked into the seventh, then Chaz Roe and rookie Colin Poche closed it out for his first save.
The Rays had no clue Snell, who was on one of his best runs of an overall disappointing follow-up season to his 2018 AL Cy Young campaign, was dealing with any issues until this week. Much less something such as loose bodies in his elbow that would require surgery and sideline him most of the rest of the season.
"Pretty disappointing," Cash said. "Look, we've had unfortunately a lot of disappointing news lately with injuries."
