Blue Jays fall quietly 6-1 to Rays

Blue Jays 1 Rays 5

The less said about this one, the better. So this recap will be short and sweet bitter.

Ezequiel Carrera hit a home run as the second batter of the game. After that, with the exception of Kendrys Morales, the Jays basically took their bats and went home. Morales went 2/3, with a single and double (the latter sandwiched around three swinging strikeouts in the 7th). The only other baserunner was a tapper through the middle by Ryan Goins in the 8th, and he was immediately doubled off on a liner smashed right at first baseman Logan Morrison. Because of course. That's what happened in this forsaken hellscape beautiful stadium.

To give credit where credit is due, Jake Odorizzi was very good. Of course it helped that the Jays put up few quality at-bats. Chicken or egg? Right now, to quote Clark Gable, frankly I don't give a damn. It was not fun to watch him roll through the lineup like a hot knife through butter.

Marco Estrada started off looking like vintage Estrada, like the 1-0 to which he was staked might be enough. We got you your run Marco, now make it stand! Alas, after back-to-back strikeouts to start the third, he gave up a bloop single and then Morrison smashed a two run homer. That would end up being all Tampa needed, but after a couple more dominant innings Estrada's start came off the rails in the 6th. Evan Longoria and Morrison hit back to back hard doubles, and one batter later Colby Rasmus smahsed a three run homer. And that was that.

J.P. Howell had a very nice, quick, clean inning of relief in the 7th, so maybe he's getting on track. Jason Grilli did not, with a messy 8th starting with two walks and requiring almost 40 pitches. So it goes.

Today's game graph:

I swear, at some point I'll get this right.

Source: FanGraphs

Jays of the Day: None. Morales probably deserves one.

Suckage: Estrada (-0.209 WPA), Travis (-0.113). But really, why single out Travis when Pillar, Bautista, Smoak, Maile all had 0-fers as well.

Tomorrow, the Jays will try to do the improbable and win a series at the Trop, Alex Cobb facing Joe Biagini at 1:07 EDT. Unique Joe will be making his first major league start on three days rest.