Rays 3, Blue Jays 1: You d’ArKnow it!

On the anniversary of Matt Garza’s no hitter, Diego Castillo, Ryan Yarbrough, Chaz Roe and Colin Poche kept the Blue Jay bats mostly in check, while the offense cashed in on just enough of their chances to walk away with a 3-1 win. The win pulled the Rays into at least a temporary tie for the final wildcard spot with late-game Oakland.

The Rays put runners on in nearly every inning, but were held off the scoreboard until the third, when they broke out on top thanks to a walk from Pham and a triple into the right field corner from Meadows.

1-0 Rays.

Diego Castillo got the open for the Rays and came out throwing gas in a clean first, which included a swinging strikeout of Vlad Jr. Ryan Yarbrough followed by holding the Jays hitless through three.

In the fourth, the Rays were the beneficiaries of a bizarre rule. After two quick outs, the Jays got back to back singles, followed by a perfectly placed Galvis lob onto the left field line. Pham then batted the ball into the stands trying to field it. But because of a quirky rule that says on such a play, all runners get two bases from the time the ball was put in play, Galvis was held at second and Grichuk was sent back to third. Yarbs then got a fly out to end the inning. 1-1 game.

The Rays put up a pair of runs in the fifth to retake the lead. A walk from Adames, a single from Choi, and a walk from Meadows loaded the bases with two outs for Travis d’Arnaud. You know what happened next. Of course TDA came through.

3-1 Rays.

Ryan Yarbrough’s day was done one out into the seventh. His line for the day was 5.1 innings, 1 run, 4 hits, a walk and 4 strikeouts. He gave way to Chaz Roe, who at first had trouble finding the zone, walking Jansen on five pitches. Thankfully, he was bailed out by a 5-4-3 double play.

Roe came back out and worked a scoreless eighth. He also seemingly found a new pitch, snapping off several what looked to be mid-70s curves that had a lot more downward break than the normal sweep of his slider. Both Biggio and Gurriel were victims of his new toy.

Colin Poche worked a clean ninth for his first big league save.