ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Despite their recent hitting struggles and their reappearance on Wednesday, the Rays had a chance to take the lead in the sixth inning. All David Peralta needed to do was maneuver the ball around a Blue Jays infield that was pulled up to the Tropicana Field turf.
First, he fouled off a pair of fastballs. Then, a slider. On the seventh pitch of his at-bat, Peralta — acquired from the Diamondbacks four days ago — laced a single up the middle, scoring fellow newcomer Jose Siri and putting the Rays ahead in an eventual 3-2 win.
The Rays’ pitching again carried them — as a progression of Jalen Beeks, Ryan Yarbrough, Ryan Thompson, Pete Fairbanks and Jason Adam limited the Blue Jays to four hits — and helped secure just the team’s fourth win in 12 games since the All-Star break.
The deciding run in the sixth began with Siri’s first hit as a Ray since the team acquired him from Houston. He pointed toward the dugout as his grounder snuck under Matt Chapman’s glove and into left field. Two pitches later, he stole second. That positioned him to score when Peralta’s base hit landed in the outfield grass.
Still, Tampa Bay failed to record more than six hits for the fourth time in its last six games. It failed to top three runs for the ninth time in 11. When the Rays won six of seven entering the All-Star break, those instances happened only twice and once, respectively. But the lapses strung together — game after game after game — and when the dust settled after the trade deadline, the Rays’ lead over Cleveland for the final wild-card spot sat at just one game.
For the second day in a row, the Blue Jays grabbed a first-inning lead. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. led off with a double — his soft hit falling when Siri dove and missed — and eventually scored on Teoscar Hernández’s two-out double. Jalen Beeks, serving as the opener for the sixth time this season, needed 30 pitches to navigate the frame.
Early on, that advantage remained intact. Left-hander Yusei Kikuchi struck out eight Tampa Bay hitters when he last pitched against them June 30, and through two innings Wednesday he already had four.
But a hit-by-pitch, a René Pinto single and a walk loaded the bases in the third. A sacrifice fly from Isaac Paredes then plated the Rays’ first run.
Yarbrough, who relieved Beeks in the second, retired the first seven batters he faced. Seventeen of his first 26 pitches dropped in for strikes. Then Hernandez connected with a 77-mph change-up in the fourth, sent it over the left-field fence and put Toronto ahead again.
The next round of at-bats, Randy Arozarena led off with a first-pitch single to right. Peralta dropped a bloop single into center just past Bo Bichette’s glove. Toronto nearly escaped the jam when Taylor Walls bounced a grounder to second, but he beat the throw to first to prevent the double play as Arozarena crossed the plate.
Yarbrough, Thompson and Fairbanks allowed just one hit — and three baserunners — after Hernandez’s homer. One came with two outs in the eighth when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled and stole second, but Fairbanks responded by inducing a groundout from Alejandro Kirk to eliminate the threat.
