After 2 horrid at bats vs. J.A. Happ, Evan Longoria homered over the wall in right-center to tie things up at 2-2 in the bottom of the 6th. Longoria was 3 for his last 27, prior to hitting his 4th home run of the season.
Kevin Pillar homered off Rays reliever Enny Romero in the top of the 7th, giving the Blue Jays a 3-2 lead. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons elected to keep J.A. Happ in the game for the seventh, due to the recent ineptitude of their bullpen. Logan Forsythe would make him pay for that mistake. Forsythe crushed Happ’s 1-1 2 out offering over the centerfield wall to tie the game. Forsythe has been on a torrid rampage over the past two weeks, batting a scorching .405( 17 for 42), hitting 7 doubles, scoring 9 runs and swiping 3 bags in that span. Forsythe has been an on base machine of late and seems to be settling nicely into the leadoff spot.
Pinch hitter Brad Miller hustled out and infield single, barely beating first baseman Justin Smoak on a sharply hit grounder to first. Kevin Kiermaier followed with a double to the right field gap, advancing Miller to third. Curt Casali, who’d been struggling offensively, (.133 over his last 15 games) lined Bret Cecil’s 3-1 offering over Troy Tulowitzki head into left field scoring Miller for the walk off victory.
“Curt’s been grinding. He’s been doing such a good job with our pitchers. And you want that reward for him to go up there and contribute offensively. It was good that he did. We wanted that win right there, and good for Curt”
-Rays Manager Kevin Cash
The walk-off win ended the Rays 2 game skid and tied the season series versus the Toronto Blue Jays 3-3. The “Rubber Match” is tomorrow afternoon at the Trop. First pitch is at 1:10.
The New What Next
Jake Odorizzi will take the mound for Tampa Bay in the series finale, opposite of Marcus Stroman. Odorizzi (0-1, 3.58 ERA) Odorizzi has shown to be adept at preventing the big inning and posses the ability to battle when he doesn’t have his best stuff, which he did Tuesday while holding the Orioles to one run in five innings. Now, if he can get ahead of batters and again become the efficient pitcher he was in 2015. Stroman (3-0, 4.37 ERA) has thrown at least six innings in seven of his last eight starts (dating back to 2015). He is 2-1 with a 4.74 ERA in three career starts against Tampa Bay, and this is the second time this year he will be matched up against them. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 5/1/16 Starting Lineup
Forsythe 2B
Miller SS
Longoria 3B
Dickerson DH
Souza RF
Morrison 1B
Guyer LF
Kiermaier CF
Conger C
Odorizzi RHP
Notewothiness
― Rays SS Tim Beckham made a couple of good defensive plays at SS, including a diving grab robbing Jose Bautista of what could have been an RBI single. Beckham also hit his first double of the season in the fifth inning.
―Steven Souza Jr. started at DH on Saturday and hit his 3rd double of the year following Longo’s homer in the sixth. Souza also struck out 3 times.
―Kevin Kiermaier committed his first error of the season in the first inning of Saturdays game. KK’s only committed 7 errors his whole career.
― Brandon Guyer will make his third consecutive start today, this time in LF and in lieu of the slumping Desmond Jennings.