Rays 10, Jays 9: What a rollercoaster

This game was a heck of a ride.

You could be forgiven if you looked at Aaron Sanchez’s 6+ ERA and assumed this game would be a relatively easy one for the Rays. But that’s the tricky thing about baseball. The numbers only tell a partial story, and sometimes a pitcher can come out and have a hell of an outing, which is precisely what the Jays managed today with Sanchez.

The Toronto club score early, with a second inning home run from Justin Smoak, and Sanchez managed to keep the Rays off the board until the fifth inning, with some very precise and quality pitches.

Things were less inspiring for Rays started Yonny Chirinos, who went four innings, giving up seven runs on eight hits, walking three, and only striking out four.

Before the Rays were able to break their goose egg, The Jays piled on quite a few. After the Smoak home run came a RBI double from Hernandez in the same inning. In the third, the Juniors got it done with a wild pitch to strike out Gurriel Jr, that ended up scoring Biggio and advancing Galvis. Then a Guerrero Jr single was able to score Galvis. Jays up 4-0 in the third.

The Rays got their first run of the game off a Duffy hit in the fifth to score Nate Lowe, but Duffy was then thrown out trying to turn the hit into a double.

In the bottom of the fifth Guerrero Jr struck again, scoring Gurriel Jr and Smoak. McKinney then hit a home run to score himself and Guerrero Jr. Jays lead 8-1.

July hero Travis d’Arnaud had a loooong at bat in the sixth to score Choi and Pham. That marked the end of the day for Sanchez, but he ERA would take another ding when a Lowe single scored d’Arnaud.

The Juniors still weren’t done, as Guerrero doubled to score Gurriel in the sixth

The Rays were not ready to call it a game, though. In the seveth inning, Ji-Man Choi hit a solo home run, his third hit of the game. Then in the eighth back to back home runs from Heredia (a two-run shot) and Adames were what the team needed to tie the game.

Tommy Pham did leave mid-game with a right hand sprain, but x-rays were negative, so he’ll be day-to-day.

In the top of the 9th a bases loaded groundout from Wendle scored Lowe, and the Rays had the lead for the first time in the game. They reloaded the bases again, but a Willy Adames strikeout ended the opportunity.

The Rays just needed to get three Jays out to end the game, and it would fall to Oliver Drake to make it happen. Drake got the first out, then Diego Castillo came on for the final two outs, and the game went to the Rays.

This marked the first time in recorded baseball history that a team blew a seven-run lead in one game, then came back from a seven-run deficit the next day.