Rays sting Jays for 6-4 win
Marco Estrada allows 2 home runs, walks 4
TORONTO — Blake Snell earned his first victory in nearly a year and the Tampa Bay Rays continued their dominance over Marco Estrada in a 6-4 win against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday.
Snell (1-6) worked six innings, allowing four runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out four. The 24-year-old lefty hadn’t won a game since Sept. 22, 2016.
Lucas Duda and Wilson Ramos hit homers off Estrada, and Corey Dickerson added an RBI single to help Tampa Bay (60-61) snap a four-game losing streak. Alex Colome pitched the bottom of the ninth for his 35th save.
Estrada (5-8) snapped a streak of four strong starts, allowing six runs on 10 hits through 4 1/3 innings. The 34-year-old right-hander, who had posted a 2.08 earned-run average over his last four outings, also walked four and struck out three.
Estrada has struggled this season against Tampa Bay, losing all four of his starts against the division rivals while giving up 22 earned runs over 18 2/3 innings.
Josh Donaldson hit a three-run blast and Kevin Pillar drove in a run for the Blue Jays (57-62), who halted a three-game winning run.
Steve Pearce scored the game’s first run, coming in on Pillar’s second-inning double that bounced over the heads of Tampa Bay’s centre- and right-fielder as both charged in the make the play.
But Duda got the run back and more in the next inning, giving Tampa a 2-1 lead by sending the first pitch he saw from Estrada into the right-field seats for a two-run homer.
The Rays extended their lead to 4-1 in the fourth. First, Ramos took Estrada deep to left field with a leadoff homer, then former Blue Jay Adeiny Hechevarria doubled and scored on Dickerson’s RBI single.
Estrada walked in back-to-back runs in a regrettable fifth inning to put the Rays up 6-1 and end his night. Rob Refsnyder botched a potential triple-play scenario earlier in the frame and Pillar lost a routine pop fly in the darkening centre-field sky to load the bases. Reliever Matt Dermody recorded the final two outs of the inning.
Donaldson cut the deficit to 6-4 with his 18th homer of the year, a three-run shot off Snell in the fifth that sparked thunderous cheers from the 33,718 in attendance.