April 15-17, 2033: vs Toronto (3)
The Rays' bats took the first two games off before exploding in the finale but it was still good enough to take two of three and move into first in the AL East past Toronto.
It was Orlando Tosado to the rescue in the opener as his 7th-inning homer (#2) broke a 1-1 tie and the Rays eked out a 2-1 win over the Jays. Kevin DiCostanzo started and scattered a lot of hits (6 10 1 1 1 7) but largely kept Toronto off the board and Cristian Hernandez's first homer of the year meant the teams were at parity until Tosado's blast. Tommy Burpee, who got DiCostanzo out of a 7th inning first-and-third, nobody out jam earned the win in his first decision and Josh Scanlon had a 1-2-3 9th for save #3.
All Toronto in the second game as the Jays shut out the Rays 4-0. It was a dismal affair all around for Tampa Bay as the bats only managed five hits and Shane Panzini (0-2) had his second rough outing in as many starts after going 4 7 4 4 1 3 with a pair of homers allowed to Toronto's Josh Jung. Five scoreless from the bullpen was the only highlight.
There were highlights galore in the finale though as you can't keep a good offense down for long and the Rays demonstrated that in a 15-2 annihilation of the Jays. Jonathan Gutierrez had a big day as his 2-run single capped a 4-run 2nd which got them going and he later added a 2-run homer (#2), his first round-tripper this year which actually left the field of play. Orlando Tosado had 3 hits including HR #3, Kelly Crumpton contributed a 3-run jack (#3), Cristian Hernandez drove in 3 including a 2-run double and Arturo Gutierrez had a pair of doubles, 2 RBI and 3 runs scored. Wes Mendes (1-1) was very good at 5 4 0 0 2 6 even though he didn't need to be today.
Team record: 9-4. Next up: 3 games on the South Side of Chicago against the White Sox.
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