Game 1: The Rays recovered from blowing a pair of leads to outlast Toronto 12-8 at Publix Park. After taking an early 1-0 lead on a Danny Ayala double, Jon Soranno started getting battered in the 3rd and wound up allowing 6 runs by the 4th to put the Rays in a 6-1 hole. His 3.1 5 6 6 3 1 performance was by far his worst start this year. But the Rays immediately responded with a 7-run bottom of the 4th to take the lead 8-6, keyed by a 3-run Luis Corpus HR (#4), a 2-run Ayala double and a Bo Angeac solo shot (#8). Danny Medina relieved Soranno but allowed the Jays to tie it up in the 6th with a pair of runs, but that just annoyed the Rays who went back ahead on an Angeac RBI double, so Medina ended up with his 2nd win. They tacked on 3 more in the 8th on a Dayle Jenkins solo homer (#4, hitting them in bunches again) and an Ayala RBI single to cap a 4-RBI day for him and give him the MLB lead at 32. Tim Siqueiros looked his old self with a 1-2-3 2K 7th, and Billy Hoyte pitched the 8th and stayed on when the lead expanded to 4, picking up his first Rays save.
Somebody call the fire department:
Game 2: Despite a great record so far, the Rays have had a disturbing trend of awful outings from their starters and once again today there were put in a big hole. This time they were unable to climb out of it as Toronto battered Andy Aparicio and the Rays 11-3. Fortunately for Aparicio 5 of the 6 runs he allowed in the 2nd were unearned thanks to a Bo Angeac error and giving up a grand slam with two out. But they still hit him pretty hard even though he was piling up the whiffs and ended with a strange 5 11 8 3 0 10 line which was BABIP hell. Kevin Kerstetter, who has been so good, ended up giving up 3 runs in his 2 2/3, but part of that was Edgar Rios giving up two hits after coming in to replace him, as allowing inherited runners to score has been a habit for Rios. There weren't too many offensive highlights either, although Jaiden Hardaway's RBI single in the 4th extended his hitting streak to 21 and Victor de Jesus continued his scorching start to the season by going 3-4 with an RBI.
Game 3: The Rays got some outstanding pitching for a change and some timely late hitting to take a 6-2 win over Toronto. Nate Thompson was excellent, going 6.1 6 2 2 2 8 and nearly coming away with the win if not for a homer he allowed in the 7th to Skyler Messinger to tie up the game. Tim Siqueiros came on, got a couple of strikeouts to end the top of the 7th and in the bottom of the inning they got 2-run homers from Danny Ayala (#9) and Nate Boesel (his first of the year) to pull away. Mike Wherry had a scoreless 8th and Kikuo Kawase had a 1-2-3 9th although he only whiffed one. Earlier Jaiden Hardaway's RBI single made it 22 straight with a safety and Ayala walked with the bases loaded for the first two Rays runs.
Team record: 24-8. Next up: An off-day then some interleague action as Atlanta comes to town for two games.