Jays waste great Robbie Ray start, lose to Rays

Rays 3 Blue Jays 1

Just a terrific outing from Robbie Ray. 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned, no walks, and 7 strikeouts. The only Ray he had trouble with was Mike Zunino. Unfortunately, Zunino homered off him and then hit a double in the seventh, but was stranded at second that time.

Old guys like me like to see a pitcher go seven innings. Ray threw 109 pitches. It is hard to believe that he has figured out how not to walk anyone at this point in his career.

Unfortunately, Anthony Castro, in his first game back from the IL, wasn’t as good. He gave up a single to Randy Arozarena, moved to second on a ground out, third on a ‘wild pitch’ that didn’t get far away from Danny Jansen, but Arozarena read it very well and scored on a single through the drawn-in infield. Castro only got two outs. Tim Mayza came in and got Ji-Man Choi to end the inning.

The Rays got another run in the ninth, Taylor Walls doubled (for the second time today), off Trent Thornton, went to third when a ball bounced away from Jansen and scored when Jansen’s hurried throw got past Espinal at third.

But we didn’t do much on offense.

We scored in the first inning. Vlad walked and then scored on a Teoscar Hernandez double that got past right fielder Manual Margot after bouncing off the right-field wall. Vlad really motored around the bases.

Beyond that, it seemed like anytime we got a runner on, we’d find a way to get a double play. The strangest was, in the second inning, Lourdes Gurriel led off with a single, but then Marcus Semien hit a fly down the right-field line. It looked like Lourdes was doing things right, went about halfway to second, and watched the play, but after Margot caught the ball he took off past second and was, far too easily, doubled off first.

We had a shot to tie in the eighth. Marcus Semien took a two-out walk. After a Bo Bichette fly out, Vlad hit a ground ball to short, but new Rays shortstop, Walls bobbled it, giving us runners on first and second. But Teoscar struck out chasing.

We only managed 6 hits. Gurriel was the only Jay to have 2.

Jay of the Day: Ray (.324 WPA). A terrific start.

Suckage: Castro (-.231), Bo (-.142), Espinal (-.188), Teoscar (-.111), and Randal (-.106).

Tomorrow we have an early game. 1:00 Eastern. Ryu tries to end our losing streak.