Snell sharp as Rays take opener
ST. PETERSBURG — Blake Snell took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and the top-seeded Tampa Bay Rays opened the playoffs Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Manuel Margot hit a two-run homer and Randy Arozarena tripled and scored on a wild pitch to give Snell and a dominant Rays bullpen all the offensive support needed to begin the best-of-three wild-card matchup.
The AL East champion Rays will try to advance Wednesday in Game 2 at Tropicana Field.
Snell allowed just two baserunners until Alejandro Kirk singled leading off the sixth. The 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner allowed one hit and struck out nine — tying a club postseason record — in 52⁄
3 innings.
Diego Castillo, Nick Anderson and Pete Fairbanks followed Snell, limiting the Blue Jays to two singles, two doubles and Bo Bichette’s eighth-inning sacrifice fly the rest of the way.
Fairbanks closed for his first save of the season as Rays manager Kevin Cash kept taking a fresh and innovative approach to using his pitching staff.
Toronto reliever Robbie Ray took the loss, giving up one run and one hit in three innings. Margot hit his homer to left-center field off A.J. Cole to push Tampa Bay’s lead to 3-0 in the seventh inning.
The wild-card Blue Jays broke through in the eighth against Anderson, didn’t allow a run in 18 of 19 regular season appearances.
Rowdy Tellez’s pinch-hit single gave Toronto a spark. Cavan Biggio followed with a double before Biggio delivered his sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
Anderson avoided further damage when shortstop Willy Adames made a nice play to snare Randal Grichuk”s liner to end the inning.
Fairbanks worked a scoreless ninth to became the 13th different pitcher to earn a save for the Rays this season.
The Rays are back in the playoffs after beating Oakland in last year’s AL wild-card game and losing to Houston in the divisional round.
With a league-best 40-20 record, they captured their first division in 10 years. Tampa Bay also won six of 10 meetings against Toronto despite being outscored 48-44 and outhomered 17-11 during the regular season series.
Snell has only had modest success against the Blue Jays during his career, but the young division rivals had no answers for the lefty Tuesday until Kirk singled through the hole between first and second base with Castillo already warming up in the Rays bullpen.
The Rays starter walked Grichuk with two outs in the first before fanning Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Teoscar Hernandez drew a one-out walk before being erased on an inning-ending double play that got Snell through the fifth.