Jays rip Rays as position players allow 10 runs
AMERICAN LEAGUE
BLUE JAYS 20, RAYS 1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Toronto Blue Jays dugout got a laugh when slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. struck out against a position player. Given a second chance against Luke Raley, Guerrero hit his fourth career grand slam.
Guerrero had six RBI and the Blue Jays stopped a five-game losing streak with a 20-1 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night, scoring their last 10 runs off position players.
Guerrero put Toronto ahead with an RBI single off Taj Bradley (3-1) in the first, had a run-scoring single in the fifth that opened a 10-0 lead and hit a 423-foot grand slam in a ninerun ninth against Raley.
“We were all kind of laughing,” Blue Jays Manager John Schneider said of Guerrero’s strikeout on a 50mph pitch. “It’s hard to do against a dude throwing 40, whatever. You kind of take it for what it’s worth. The fact that he was laughing, I loved it.”
“But, you don’t get Vladdy twice on a position player,” Schneider added. “He’s going to get you.”
Guerrero is hitting .300 with 8 homers and 33 RBI. His six RBI were one shy of his career high.
All 12 Toronto batters in the game had hits, and the Blue Jays finished with 27 hits — their most since getting 29 against Boston in a 28-5 win last July 22.
George Springer had a career-high four hits, and Bo Bichette, Whit Merrifield, Danny Jansen and Guerrero had three apiece. Springer hit his seventh homer, a solo drive in the third.
Raley, an outfielder and first baseman, allowed 7 runs and 8 hits over 1 2/3 innings.
WHITE SOX 4, GUARDIANS 2 Romy Gonzalez’s two-run double broke a seventh-inning tie and sent visiting Chicago past Cleveland.
ROYALS 4, TIGERS 1 Maikel Garcia had three hits, an RBI and a run as host Kansas City beat Detroit to snap a four-game losing streak.
YANKEES 6, ORIOLES 5 (10) Aaron Judge hit a tying homer in the ninth inning and rookie Anthony Volpe drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the 10th as New York beat Baltimore.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CARDINALS 8, REDS 5 Paul Goldschmidt homered in his first two at-bats and Adam Wainwright earned his first victory over Cincinnati since 2019 as visiting St. Louis won.
DIAMONDBACKS 4, PHILLIES 3 Corbin Carroll singled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning for his third hit and visiting Arizona beat Philadelphia for its ninth victory in 11 games.
DODGERS 8, BRAVES 1 Bobby Miller won a duel of hard-throwing pitchers, allowing one run over five innings in his big league debut to lead visiting Los Angeles over Atlanta.
PADRES 7, NATIONALS 4 Juan Soto hit his ninth home run and had three hits to begin a three-game visit to Washington, D.C., to take on his former team as San Diego defeated Washington.
CUBS 7, METS 2 Christopher Morel, Matt Mervis and Seiya Suzuki homered and host Chicago beat New York. Mervis had three RBI for the Cubs in the opener of a nine-game homestand, and Drew Smyly (Little Rock Central, Arkansas Razorbacks) pitched four-hit ball into the sixth inning.
ROCKIES 5, MARLINS 4 Charlie Blackmon doubled in a four-run fifth inning, Jurickson Profar extended his on-base streak to 31 games and host Colorado beat Miami.
INTERLEAGUE
RANGERS 6, PIRATES 1 Nathan Eovaldi pitched a complete game for the second time in five starts, leading visiting Texas over Pittsburgh. Eovaldi (6-2) allowed 6 hits, struck out 5 and walked 1.
GIANTS 4, TWINS 3 Michael Conforto doubled to spark a sixth-inning rally and hit the goahead two-run homer in the seventh for visiting San Francisco.
BREWERS 6, ASTROS 0 Joey Wiemer and Owen Miller homered as host Milwaukee stopped Houston’s eight-game winning streak.
ANGELS 4, RED SOX 0 Mike Trout hit a tworun homer and Griffin Canning allowed two hits in seven innings as host Los Angeles beat Boston.
MARINERS 3, ATHLETICS 2 J.P. Crawford and Ty France hit back-to-back home runs in a three-run fifth inning, and host Seattle sent Oakland to its sixth straight loss.