Tampa Bay built the kind of lead that looked safe by the fourth inning. Toronto spent the rest of the night trying to erase it, and nearly did. The Rays held on, 7-6.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| TB | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 7 |
Yandy Diaz was at the center of it. He went 1-for-3 with a home run, two RBIs and a walk, and his two-run shot in the first inning set the tone before Toronto's pitching staff ever settled in. His blast capped a season in which he has driven in 496 runs, sitting just shy of the 500-RBI milestone.
Diaz's first-inning homer scored Junior Caminero and gave Tampa Bay a lead it would never relinquish. The Rays broke the game open in the fourth: Richie Palacios doubled home Diaz and Liam Hicks, Taylor Walls added a run on a sacrifice bunt, Chandler Simpson's bunt single plated Palacios, and Caminero grounded into an RBI groundout that pushed the score to 7-1. Toronto chipped away with Alejandro Kirk's solo homer in the fourth, then strung together runs in the fifth on RBI singles from Charles McAdoo, Kazuma Okamoto and Kirk, plus a sacrifice fly by Nathan Lukes. McAdoo's sixth-inning double brought Toronto within one, 6-7, but the Blue Jays could not complete the comeback.
Max Scherzer took the loss, allowing 7 runs on 5 hits over 4.0 innings with 3 walks and 1 strikeout, now 1-6 on the season with a 7.40 ERA. Drew Rasmussen got the win despite allowing 5 runs (5 earned) on 7 hits in 5.0 innings, striking out five. Tampa Bay's bullpen covered the final four innings, allowing just 1 run, with Bryan Baker closing it out for a save.
The win moved Tampa Bay to 76-50, first in its division, and snapped nothing since the Rays had already been rolling into this one at W1. Toronto fell to 62-66 with the loss, its second straight defeat. Scherzer, who also sits at 494 career games played, remains six shy of 500.