Game 1: Nate Schultz turned in an outstanding effort and the Rays hit 4 longballs to take a closer-than-it-should-have-been 6-3 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Schultz took a shutout into the 9th but gave up a couple of hits, so Jim Connors came in and he ended up making a mess. He gave up a hit to score a run and walked two more to force in a 2nd run. With lefties due Mike Wherry came in and he walked a man to force in another run but whiffed Riley Greene to end the game and get his 3rd save. Schultz finished 8 5 2 2 2 10 and now is 4-0 in his first 5 starts as a Ray, lowering his ERA to 3.69. Like fellow acquisition Leo Ortega, Schultz has pitched much better on the road than in Publix Park. Before all that in the 9th it looked like a cakewalk thanks to the usual suspects hitting homers. Nate Clark banged out the first two to give the Rays a 3-0 lead and give him 12 for the young season, and Luis Corpus, fresh off a recent 2-homer game, hit a 2-run shot in the 6th (#5) to make it 5-0 before Dayle Jenkins added a solo blast (#2) in the 7th.
Game 2: Picking up where Nate Schultz left off yesterday and going him one better, Jon Soranno dominated Toronto in a 6-1 Rays win. The second-year lefty retired the first 14 Jays before Gabriel Moreno singled, and he took a 4-hit shutout into the 8th before he gave up a couple of hits and the lead runner scored on a sac fly. Soranno finished 7.2 6 1 1 0 9 and like Schultz yesterday went to 4-0 (but with a niftier 2.97 ERA). Tim Siqueiros went the final 1 1/3, retiring all 4 batters he faced. The Rays got a 2-0 lead on a 1st inning RBI single from Rodolfo Rivas and 4th inning Skyler Messinger error which allowed Victor de Jesus to score before they went into homer mode with Nate Clark going yard
again with a man on in the 5th for #13 (his 4th in 3 games and 5 in 5) and Rivas going back-to-back with him for #5. Ricky Widmar then added #4 in the 6th for their final run.
In news that shocked nobody:
Game 3: Instead of "can you top this?" Rays starting pitchers have been playing a game of "can you repeat this?" this weekend in Toronto. After Jon Soranno retired the first 14 Jays yesterday, Andy Aparicio did the same thing and ended with the same result in a 6-3 win. Skyler Messinger was today's spoilsport for Toronto, hitting a bloop single over the infield in the 5th to break up AA's perfect game. He lost the shutout in the 6th and ran out of gas in the 7th, finishing 6.2 6 2 2 1 9 but getting his MLB-best 5th win of the year and lowering his ERA below 4 to 3.82. Mike Wherry got the final out of the 7th and two more in the 8th before Kikuo Kawase came in and - you guessed it - struck out a man for the final out. Kawase stayed on when the Rays made it 6-2 in the top of the 9th but gave up his 2nd homer of the year to that man Messinger (who also doubled and scored for the 2nd Jays run) around striking out the side as he now has an absurd 2/30 BB/K ratio in 12 1/3 innings and earned his 2nd save. On offense they surprisingly didn't homer today with Ricky Widmar the fulcrum of the attack with a double and triple among his 3 hits. Rodolfo Rivas started the scoring with a 1st-inning RBI single then they put up 4 in the 4th with Luis Corpus' RBI single and Widmar's RBI double the big hits there.
Team record: 20-6. Next up: Our annual 4-game home-and-home series with Columbus as we head there for the first two.