Smoak derails Rays on walk-off
TORONTO — Justin Smoak homered with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 9-8 victory over Tampa Bay on Thursday night, dealing a blow to the Rays’ wild-card playoff hopes.
Smoak hit his 25th homer of the season and third career walk-off blast. Sergio Romo (3-4) blew his eighth save in 30 opportunities.
Right-hander David Paulino (1-0) pitched an inning for the victory as Toronto won for the fourth time in its past five.
Trailing 8-2 to begin the ninth, the Blue Jays roared back to snap Tampa Bay’s five-game winning streak. Tellez hit an RBI double and Danny Jansen chased Jamie Schultz with a three-run homer. Romo came on and struck out Richard Urena, but pinch hitter Kendrys Morales singled and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. tied it with a two-run homer to left.
Smoak followed with a first pitch drive to right, Toronto’s fourth homer of the game.
C.J. Cron had three RBI for the Rays, who dropped 61⁄2 games behind Oakland in the race for the second AL wild card. The Athletics routed the Los Angeles Angels 21-3 on Thursday.
Oakland has nine games remaining while the Rays have 10, including six more with Toronto. Tampa Bay is 9-4 against the Blue Jays this season.
Toronto’s Rowdy Tellez opened the scoring when he connected off Rays righthander Ryne Stanek in the second. The Rays answered against right-hander Sam Gaviglio in the fourth when Tommy Pham hit an RBI triple and Joey Wendle followed with a double.
Willy Adames hit for Brandon Lowe with one out and runners at first and second in the sixth. Righthander Jake Petricka replaced lefty Jose Fernandez (0-1), but Adames put the Rays in front with a ground ball single up the middle. Kevin Kiermaier walked to load the bases but Tim Mayza came on and struck out pinch hitters Cron and Carlos Gomez.
Stanek made his 27th start as the Rays used an “opener” for the 50th time this season. Yonny Chirinos (5-5) replaced Stanek after the first three batters reached safely in the second and pitched 42⁄3 innings.
Tampa Bay looked to have broken it open with a fiverun 10-batter seventh. Cron had the big hit — a two-out bases-loaded bloop single that dropped in front of sliding left fielder Billy McKinney, allowing Kiermaier to score from first.
MIAMI — Cody Reed was a winner in his first major-league start and Scooter Gennett homered and doubled to lead the Cincinnati Reds to a 4-2 win over the Miami Marlins on Thursday night.
Reed (1-2) scattered five hits and struck out six in six shutout innings. The lefthander joined the starting rotation Aug. 30 and has thrown 11 consecutive scoreless innings.
Gennett’s two-run home run in the seventh gave Cincinnati a 4-0 lead. Gennett’s blast off Miami reliever Elieser Hernandez landed in the upper deck in right field and was his 23rd homer.
The Marlins threatened in the sixth as Starlin Castro and J.T. Realmuto singled, but Reed retired Peter O’Brien on a double-play grounder and Austin Dean on a fly to center. Realmuto’s twoout RBI double off reliever Jared Hughes cut Cincinnati’s lead to 4-1. Raisel Iglesias inherited Realmuto and allowed a run-scoring single by O’Brien before retiring pinch hitter Derek Dietrich on a fly to center.