ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Yonny Chirinos, clean shaven and 25, looks nothing like Dallas Keuchel, the bearded 31-year-old free agent pitcher who captured the Cy Young Award in 2015 and helped Houston win the World Series in 2017.
For a day, however, Chirinos seemed to quiet talk of Tampa Bay acquiring Keuchel or any other starter. The righthander pitched five no-hit innings to helped Tampa Bay (32-19) to an 8-3 victory over Toronto before a Memorial Day crowd of 15,883.
In winning their third consecutive game, the Rays made the most of some timely hitting while relying on Chirinos' stellar pitching. Outfielder Tommy Pham extended his hitting streak to 13 straight games and drove in two runs. Austin Meadows continued his hot streak, going 3-for-5 with an RBI single in the second and a two-run homer in the eighth. Catcher Travis d'Arnaud had three hits and scored three times.
The offense proved to be more than enough thanks largely to Chirinos, who struck out seven. Tampa Bay has split Chirinos' appearances between starts and long relief after starting a game with its trademark "opener." In calling on him to make his fifth start of the year, Cash promised to limit him to a typical Chirinos game: 70-75 pitches.
He couldn't have imagined, however, that Chirinos would throw 45 of his 69 pitches for strikes and limit the Jays to two base runners over the first five frames. Chirinos retired the last 10 batters he faced, thanks in large part to Kevin Kiermaier's dazzling catch in the fourth. The former platinum glove winner ran down a Rowdy Tellez shot in the fourth, colliding with the Spectrum Mobile sign in left center and falling to the ground to haul in the fly ball.
And believe it or not, Chirinos may have completed his five-inning outing in perfect-game mode if the dreaded B-Ring had not come into play in the second inning.
Pham appeared to have a bead on high, two-out pop up from Lourdes Gurriel, Jr., but it bounced off the B ring came down and popped out of Pham's glove. Gurriel ended up drawing a walk, as did the next batter, Cavan Biggio. But Chirinos bounced back to end the inning by striking out Jonathan Davis.
The relief effort proved a bit temperamental. Oliver Drake, who gave up the no-hitter on his first pitch, had to combine with Chaz Roe to get out of a two-on, one-out jam in the sixth. Tommy Hunter allowed a two-run shot to Davis in the seventh.
However, Jose Alvarado fulfilled his high-leverage role by retiring the side in the eighth _ largely thanks to a 6-4-3 double play. The Rays broke open the game in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run double from Daniel Robertson and Meadows' mammoth shot over the right field fence.
The Blue Jays added a late run in the ninth when Freddy Galvis homered off of reliever Adam Kolarek. Gurriel followed with a double off the centerfield wall, but Biggio grounded back to the mound and Davis flew out to left to end the game.
