ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ With a six-game win streak prior to playing a three-game series against the rebuilding Blue Jays, it looked as if the Rays would keep right on rolling into their West Coast road trip.
Almost, but not quite.
After falling behind 4-0 through seven innings, the Rays scored a run in the eighth and two more in the ninth but came up one run short in a 4-3 loss Wednesday afternoon in front of 10,299 at Tropicana Field. Five Blue Jays pitchers combined to hang on for the win. The fivesome of former Ray Wilmer Font, the recently acquired Brock Stewart, Justin Shafer, Tim Mayza and Ken Giles did enough to win the series.
While the Rays almost pulled it off, the offense was rather quiet in the series. Aside from the fourth inning of Tuesday's game, when the Rays scored six runs on three home runs, they scored only four runs in the 27 other innings of the three-game series. One came on a wild pitch in the 10th inning Tuesday. They were shutout on Monday.
This is the first time the Rays have dropped a series to the Blue Jays since August of 2017 (9-0-1 since then). It's the first time they have lost a home series against them since May of 2017.
The first three innings were a pitcher's duel. Rays starter Brendan McKay struck out six in the first three innings, including the first three batters he faced.
Font, who started the season with the Rays, played the "Opener" role for Toronto and kept his former team off the board. He pitched to nine batters, struck out five and only allowed a double to former Blue Jay Eric Sogard before being relieved with one out in the third inning.
The Blue Jays (47-70) scored the game's first run in the fourth. Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. hit the first pitch from McKay just over the 404 sign for his 19th homer to make it 1-0. With the Rays offense stuck in neutral, the score stayed the same until the sixth inning.
Randall Grichuk, like Gurriel, led off with a solo home run. And like Gurriel, it was his 19th of the season. It was the sixth home run allowed in 29 2/3 innings by McKay. Justin Smoak followed that with a sharp single that ended McKay's day. Colin Poche relieved and didn't have much luck either. After getting a flyout, he gave up a deep home run to left centerfield by Derek Fisher and just like that the score was 4-0.
The Rays had very few scoring chances early. The best came in the second inning when runners reached second and third with one out. But strikeouts by Kevin Kiermaier and Mike Zunnino ended that threat. They got a runner to second base in the fourth inning, but failed to reach second after that.
They finally broke through with two outs in the eighth inning. Austin Meadows greeted Mayza with a double off the centerfield wall. The ball landed just under the yellow home run line. Avisail Garcia followed that with a single up the middle that scored Meadows and broke up the shut out.
In the ninth inning, the Rays finally gave the crowd some reason to make noise. Kevin Kiermaier singled with one out. Mike Zunino then blasted a home run to deep centerfield that made it a one run deficit. Giles got the final two outs on strikeouts to end the game.
The Rays (66-50) were trying to get to 18 games over .500 for the first time this season.
