Game 1: Kevin Kerstetter was hit for 6 runs by the Blue Jays today, but thanks to his teammates his perfect record remained intact as the Rays rallied to defeat Toronto 9-6 at Publix Park. Kersetter coughed up a couple of homers and suffered a 5-run 4th inning against as Toronto went up 6-3. He hung around and settled in a bit to finish 6 7 6 6 1 8 and the bats bailed him out as Dayle Jenkins hit #16 to tie the game in the 7th and a 3-run rally in the 8th with a Will Quintana RBI single and a 2-run single from Jaiden Hardaway gave Tampa Bay the win. Earlier, Victor de Jesus homered (#35) and drove in 3 while Bo Angeac (#23) had a solo shot. Willie Bertone pitched the 7th and Jim Golunski got his 4th win in 12 Rays appearances with a perfect 8th before Kikuo Kawase struck out the side around a walk in the 9th for save #34.
Game 2: The Rays took a fairly routine 7-1 win over Toronto today. Nate Schultz went to 16-2, 3.22 with a 6 7 2 2 1 9 outing and Edgar Rios, Bob Sirna and Danny Medina each got in an inning of scoreless relief. Dayle Jenkins went 3-5 with 2 RBI, Jaiden Hardaway was 3-5 with 1 RBI and Mike McKee was 3-3 with a walk to pace the offense.
Game 3: Another win for Tampa Bay as they take down Toronto 7-4. Another big day for Jaiden Hardaway, who was 2-4 with a HR (#25) and 2 RBI and Danny Ayala had a 2-run double among his 3 hits today. Leo Ortega got the win but it was a bit of struggle for him as he walked 3 batters, including 2 in the first inning. That's notable because he had a grand total of 9 walks coming into today's start. He still got the win and finished 5 4 2 1 3 6 to improve to 10-5, 3.17. Ron Adams went 3 innings in relief and gave up a pair of runs and Mike Wherry pitched the 9th for his 4th save.
Game 4: The Rays completed the 4-game series sweep behind yet another great outing from Josh Hanna in a 3-0 win. Hanna went 7 6 0 0 0 4 and is now a run in which he's allowed 5 earned runs in his last 7 starts over 48 innings, an 0.94 ERA in that stretch. Tim Siqueiros got the 8th and Kikuo Kawase pitched around a couple of singles to nail down save #35. Dayle Jenkins and Victor de Jesus had RBI singles in the 3rd and Mike McKee homered for the 8th time the season in the 5th for the Rays' scoring.
Team record: 114-30. Next up: An off-day followed by Texas coming in for 3 games.
From the league:
And, wowza:
We'll take Josh Hanna at a much lower price the next two seasons, thank you.