Rays cruise, close in on AL East crown

Ryan Yarbrough allowed two hits over six innings of splendid relief and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Miami Marlins 8-0 on Friday night to close in on another AL East title.

The defending American League champions got three RBIs apiece from Randy Arozarena and Kevin Kiermaier, who was a homer short of the cycle.

Tampa Bay, which clinched a postseason spot Wednesday, has a magic number of two to win the division. A Rays victory and Boston loss to the New York Yankees on Saturday would secure Tampa Bay’s second consecutive AL East crown.

“Our whole group, we know what situation we’re in, and we just want to take advantage of that,” Kiermaier said. “Try to take that next step in winning the division, and hopefully once we do we just keep going and do not get content. We have to keep that motivation because we just need to keep this competitive fire that we’ve had and just ride that out as long as possible.”

Yarbrough (9-6) replaced opener David Robertson in the second and had four strikeouts. Dietrich Enns went the final two innings to complete a two-hitter.

Robertson worked a scoreless first in his first career start after 670 relief outings. It was the most appearances out of the bullpen at the time of a pitcher’s first major league start, passing Joakim Soria’s 666, according to STATS.

Yarbrough allowed 18 runs over

10 ⅓ innings in his previous three starts.

“Picked up a big strikeout when he needed it, and you saw a lot of popups, a lot of miss-hits,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It was very encouraging to see him get back in that rhythm.”

Tampa Bay rookie shortstop Wander Franco returned after missing two weeks with a right hamstring injury and extended his on-base streak to

40 games with a sixth-inning walk. Only Frank Robinson, with a 43-game run in 1956, has a longer one among players under 21.