When the Blast of War Blows in Our Ears: Rays 0.5 GB of Wild Card After Blasting 4 Homers Against Jays

Recap was put together by Minor Leaguer. A big thanks for helping me out when I couldn't get to a computer.

Rays 5 Blue Jays 2.

Brett Cecil (4-11) finishes a bad season with a bad outing against the surging Tampa Bay Rays, allowing a line of 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 HR, 1 K, 2 BB in 3.1 IP. This game was boring but at least it wasn't as horrible as yesterday's game.

Things were bad from the get-go with Cecil allowing a solo shot to B. J. Upton on his 8th pitch of the game. An out later, Ben Zobrist hit a hard fly ball to the right field wall. Jose Bautista was tracking the ball and ran hard into the a padded metal pole on the wall.He went down hard and by the time Dewayne Wise came over to get the ball, Zobrist was rounding third and got an inside-the-park homer. Bautista got back up and played several more innings but Mark Teahen was sent to pinch hit for him in the top of the 6th.

Cecil gave up a two-run homer to Evan Longoria in the bottom of the third, and after allowing a Kelly Shoppach single with one out in the 4th, Jesse Litsch was sent into relieve Cecil. Litsch gave up 2 hits and no walks with 4 strike outs in his 2.1 innings of relief, but one of the hits was a Kelly Shoppach home run.Shawn Camp, Luis Perez, and Danny Farquhar then combined for a one-hit shutout and four strikeouts for the rest of the way, but the damage was already done.

On the other side, Wade Davis limited the feeble Jays lineup to 3 hits and 2 runs in 8 innings, giving up 2 walks while striking out 6. Dewayne Wise, who was put into the lineup last minute due to Colby Rasmus' "flu-like symptoms" (he looked fine to me when the camera picked him up in the dugout), had a solo job. David Cooper's RBI double in the 2nd was responsible for the Jays' other run.

It is sad to see the Jays being so short handed in September, with Lind, Rasmus, Escobar, and Bautista unavailable. Reports at the beginning of the game say that Escobar is probably done for the balance of the season, but Lind should be able to join the team in Chicago. The best Jays-related news to come out today was the birth of Lind's little girl. Congrats!

Brian Jeroloman was seen chatting with Bautista and the supposedly contagious Rasmus in the dugout but saw no action.

Jays of the Day: none. But David Cooper (+.090) was close with his RBI-double.

Suckage Jays: Brett Cecil (-.295).

For the Blue Jays "fans" who were rooting against the Jays this series, you would be happy to know that with the Rays' win and Red Sox's game 1 loss, the Rays are now just 0.5 games back of a wild card berth.

The Jays (and Mike McCoy) take their last flight of the season to Chicago to meet the White Sox for the last series of the season. Tomorrow we will see RHP Dustin McGowan (0-1, 6.35 ERA) face RHP Dylan Axelrod (0-0, 4.26 ERA) at 8:10 pm EST. RHP Henderson Alvarez (1-2, 3.65 ERA) will pitch against LHP Mark Buehrle (12-9, 3.72 ERA) at the same time on Tuesday. RHP Brandon Morrow (11-11, 4.78 ERA) will pitch the last game of the season opposite to RHP Philip Humber (9-9, 3.86 ERA) in an afternoon affair starting 2:10 pm EST.