St. Petersburg — Tampa Bay came up short on Friday as Toronto hung on for a 7-6 win at Tropicana Field. The Rays now need to win out in the final two games of the series if they are to reach the coveted 90-win plateau.
“We had a chance to close the game, separate the game, and we didn’t,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
After providing starter Tyler Glasnow just 11 runs of support in his last 10 outings, the Tampa Bay offense wasted no time in giving the righty a big cushion right out of the gate off Toronto starter Tommy Pannone. Mallex Smith led of the Rays’ half of the first inning with a triple to the left-center gap. The next batter, Tommy Pham, walked on four straight pitches to set the table for Joey Wendle, who delivered with a double to left for the first run of the game. C.J. Cron would plate Pham with a sacrifice fly for his team-leading 73rd RBI of the season. Willy Adames, who has now hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games, capped off the three-run frame with an RBI single.
Smith would start things off again in the fifth with an infield single that ricochetted off Pannone. Smith would advance to third after a mishandled throw on the stolen base attempt at second. Phamwho extended his league-high on-base streak to 30 games, would bring him in on a sacrifice fly on a shallow pop to right.
The Jays managed to chip away a the lead however, beginning with a solo shot by Teoscar Hernandez in the second. Toronto would tie things up in the top of the sixth after Rowdy Tellez led things off with a solo blast. Glasnow’s night ended after allowing a single by Reese Maguire and a walk to Dwight Smith Jr. Jon Berti then tied things up with a two-run double off Rays reliever Adam Kolarek.
“We couldn’t stop the bleeding,” Cash said.
Despite the early departure in his final start of the season, Glasnow finished with a career-high nine strike outs while allowing three earned runs on seven hits in the no decision.
“I think I can build off that for next year,” Glasnow said.
Game 160 and they still surprise us. pic.twitter.com/aB51n6Bqcx
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) September 29, 2018
Tampa Bay briefly took the lead back after Adam Moore snuck in a drag bunt single that scored Adames in the bottom of the sixth. It would be short lived as pinch hitter Randall Grichuck cleared the bases in the top of the seventh with a three-run triple.
Moore brought the Rays within one with a solo blast –his first big league home run since 2012 –in the eighth. Smith, who finished his night 3-for-5, followed that up with a double — his 27th of the season — off the wall in the gap in left-center.
“Unfortunate that the season is ending,” Moore said of his hot streak.
That would be as close as Tampa Bay would get after reliever Ryan Tepera came on to retire Pham, Wendle and Cron in order to end the threat.
Up Next
Blake Snell (21-5, 1.90 ERA) will look to extend his league lead in victories and ERA as the Rays make their final push to reach the 90-win plateau for the season when they host the Blue Jays on Saturday at 6:10 p.m. ET. Snell, who has won his last nine decisions, will be opposed by fellow southpaw Ryan Borucki (4-5, 3.76). All fans in attendance will receive a commemorative Dan Johnson bobblehead.
