TORONTO (AP) — Teoscar Hernandez and Santiago Espinal homered as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 Thursday in the opener of a five-game series at Rogers Center.
Yusei Kikuchi made his first quality start in over a month and Adam Cimber picked up the save as Toronto won for the third time in four games.
Toronto (43-33) moved into a tie for second with Boston in the AL East standings. Tampa Bay fell 2 1/2 games behind the inactive Blue Jays and Red Sox, who hold the top two AL wild-card spots.
Isaac Paredes hit a solo home run for the Rays (40-35), who have lost three in a row. Toronto outscored Tampa Bay 9-5.
Kikuchi (3-4) allowed one earned run, four hits and one walk. He had eight strikeouts in his first win since May 16.
Tampa Bay starter Matt Wisler worked a scoreless frame before handing the ball to Ryan Yarbrough, newly recalled from Triple-A Durham. Yarbrough gave up an infield single to Alejandro Kirk in the second before Hernandez hit his eighth home run of the year.
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Kikuchi didn’t allow a hit until Yandy Diaz singled with two outs in the third inning. He was left stranded when Wander Franco struck out.
Tampa Bay cut the lead in half in the fourth when Paredes hit a solo shot just inside the foul screen in left field. It was his 11th home run of the season.
Kikuchi struck out Taylor Walls in the fifth inning for his 400th career strikeout. The lefty gave up back-to-back singles in the sixth, but third baseman Matt Chapman made two strong defensive plays to quell the threat.
Chapman started a 5-3 double play and then skipped a groundout by Randy Arozarena before making a strong throw to first base for the third out.
In the seventh inning, reliever Trent Thornton allowed a single to Vidal Bruján, who stole the second and took the third on a throwing error by rookie catcher Gabriel Moreno.
Chapman’s defense came in handy again when he chased down Francisco Mejia’s fly ball into foul territory to retire the winger.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled to right field in the bottom half of the inning before Espinal hit his sixth home run of the year.
Yarbrough (0-4) allowed four earned runs, eight hits and a walk in 5 1/3 innings.
David Phelps pitched the eighth inning for Toronto and Cimber earned his fourth save. The advertised attendance was 22,987 and the match took two hours and 55 minutes to play.
HIGH FIVE
This is the first time the Blue Jays have played a five-game series at the Rogers Center.
It is the 12th time Toronto has played a series of at least five games in franchise history and is the fourth such series to be played at home (the others were in 1977, ’79 and ’80 at Exhibition Stadium). .
An additional game has been added to this week’s series to include a game originally scheduled for April 4th.
LIST MOVEMENTS
The Rays placed pitchers Brooks Raley and Ryan Thompson on the restricted list before the game. Right-handers Javy Guerra and Phoenix Sanders were added to Triple-A Durham’s active roster.
Tampa Bay also placed left-hander Jeffrey Springs on the family medical emergency list.
LIKELY PITCHERS
The right-handers are set to meet on Friday night. Jose Berrios (5-4, 5.86 ERA) will start against Tampa Bay’s Corey Kluber (3-4, 3.45).
Neither team has confirmed starters for Saturday’s doubleheader or Sunday afternoon’s series finale.
Tampa Bay’s Shane McClanahan (8-3, 1.77) and Toronto’s Kevin Gausman (6-6, 2.93) will likely pitch Saturday, but it’s unclear whether they’ll start in the afternoon or at night.
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This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 30, 2022.
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© 2022 The Canadian Press