Tampa Bay Rays vs Toronto Blue Jays

St Petersburg, Florida: The Tampa Bay Rays opened up their final series of the season with a three game set against the AL East leading Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night at Tropicana Field. The Rays were unable to keep the red hot offense of the Blue Jays quiet as they fell 8-4 in the last Friday night game of the season for the Rays.

The Blue Jays had already clinched the American League East title and had their ticket to the postseason punched but they didn’t roll-over for the Rays as they pushed to secure home field advantage for the playoffs. They were also looking to put starter Mark Buehrle in the record books as the sought his fifteenth straight 200-inning season.

The Blue Jays jumped out to an early lead in the second inning. A ground ball to short by Kevin Pillar scored Chris Colabello to give them a 1-0 lead.

The lead held until the bottom of the fifth when the Rays struck for four runs. Luke Maile tied the game with an RBI single to score Richie Shaffer. Then later in the inning, Mikie Mahtook went deep to left for his eighth homer of the season, a three run shot to give the Rays a 4-1 lead.

But Toronto answered with a four run inning of their own to regain the lead in the sixth. Pillar doubled home Russell Martin for the first run of the inning. Two more runs came on a triple by Ryan Goins to tie the game. A sac fly by Ben Revere put the Blue Jays back in front 5-4.

Two long balls and a crazy play gave the Blue Jays an even bigger lead in the seventh. Edwin Encarnacion got it started with a solo homer to deep center. Then came the craziness of Tropicana Field as a towering fly ball by Colabello got stuck in the catwalk briefly before dropping into left field. Jays manager John Gibbons immediately challenged the play but the umpires ruled the ball to be in play and Colabello was awarded a triple rather than a home run. But Colabello wouldn’t remain on the bases long as Martin cleared the bases with a two run homer to give the Blue Jays the 8-4 margin of victory.

Buehrle would not make his 200 inning threshold as he was pulled in the bottom of the seventh but he departed with a win.

Click on the photo above to view my Rays/Blue Jays photo gallery.

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