Times Colonist

Rays hand Jays fourth straight loss

- TAMPA BAY 6 TORONTO 5 ATLANTA 4 SEATTLE 0

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — Lucas Duda and Corey Dickerson homered in the first two innings and Chris Archer struck out 10 for the Tampa Bay Rays in a 6-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.

Alex Colome got his major-leaguelead­ing 37th save after giving up hits to Kendrys Morales and Steve Pearce that left the potential game-tying run on third base in the ninth. The Blue Jays have lost four straight.

Duda’s 23rd home run (sixth with Tampa Bay) came off rookie Chris Rowley in the first inning after Norichika Aoki had led off the game with a homer off Archer.

Dickerson hit his 23rd homer in the second, starting a three-run inning off Rowley that put the Rays ahead 4-1.

Aoki drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth after a double by Ezequiel Carrera and an RBI single by Ryan Goins.

Carrera had entered the game in the third inning after the ejection of Blue Jays centre fielder Kevin Pillar by home plate umpire Chad Fairchild.

Josh Donaldson’s 21st home run came off Rays reliever Tommy Hunter in the eighth. It was Donaldson’s 11th homer in 20 games.

Miguel Montero made it 6-5 with a sacrifice fly in the ninth.

Archer gave up three runs (one earned) an four hits while striking out 10 in six innings.

Rowley gave up four runs and five hits in 3 13⁄ innings in his third major league start for the Blue Jays.

Archer (9-7) and Rowley (1-1) faced each other for the second time in five days. Neither got a decision in the Blue Jays’ 5-3 win on Thursday.

After his first three major league starts, left-handers are hitting only .185 against the right-handed Rowley. However, the five hits include three triples and two home runs. ATLANTA — Rookie Lucas Sims pitched three-hit ball over six innings and the Atlanta Braves scored on a crazy play that took three rundowns in a 4-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

Sims (2-3) won his second straight start after starting his big league career with three losses in a row. Seattle only got two runners as far as second base against the 23-year-old right-hander, a native of suburban Atlanta who won for the first time in front of the home folks.

Nick Markakis put the Braves ahead in the fourth, leading off with his eighth homer of the season against Marco Gonzalez (0-1), yet another replacemen­t starter in Seattle’s injuryplag­ued rotation.

Markakis added a run-scoring single in the fifth.

 ??  ?? Rays’ Kevin Kiermaier slides past Jose Bautista and safely into third with an RBI triple in the second inning Tuesday.
Rays’ Kevin Kiermaier slides past Jose Bautista and safely into third with an RBI triple in the second inning Tuesday.

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