Good start from R.A. Dickey and 3 home runs, Jays beat Rays

Rays 3 Blue Jays 5

We get another nice start from R.A. Dickey. He's been so good in the second half. Tonight, 7 innings, just 4 hits, 3 walks and 4 strikeouts producing just 2 runs against. During the first inning, it didn't look like we were going to get another good start from him. He gave up a 1-out double, single and hit batter. That, a wild pitch, and a sac fly, put us down 2-0 before we got a chance to swing the bats. After that he shut down the Rays.

That was career win number 100 for R.A.

Mark Lowe pitched the 8th inning, giving up a J.P. Arencibia home run, just to make us sweat a bit.

Roberto Osuna throw a quick 9th, with 1 strikeout thrown in, to get his 18th save.

On offense, it was the solo homer show. We got 3 home runs, one each from Josh Donaldson, Kevin Pillar and Jose Bautista.

And the less powered bats added in some offense. Corey Pennington (that's his name, right?)went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Ben Rivera was 2 for 4 with a triple and a steal. The triple started off the game for us, and when we couldn't score him, I was afraid that is was going to be one of those games we just couldn't score when we needed. Kevin Pillar was the other Jay with 2 hits, a double and a homer, and he walked(!). He also had his 24th steal of the year.

Even Darwin Barney chipped in with a hit and 2 sac bunts.

Ryan Goins had a tough day at the plate, going 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. The good part is he never seems to carry a bad day at the plate into the field.

Jays of the Day are Dickey (.187 WPA), Pennington (.167), Pillar (.153) and Revere (.107). Let's give an honorable mention to Osuna for the dramaless (that's a word, right?) save.

The Magic number is now 6.  The White Sox beat the Yankees.

And, with luck, the Jays might clinch post season play tonight. The Twins and Tigers are tied (as I type this) and the Angles and Mariners are just getting going. If both the Twins and Angels lose, we are in the post season.

We had 1,162 comments in the GameThread, Belisarius led us to victory. Great job.