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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Series Win Over Blue Jays

By Josh Jacobs |
Toronto Blue Jays v Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays v Tampa Bay Rays / Julio Aguilar/GettyImages
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Coming off a rough series against the Los Angeles Angels, the resilience of the Tampa Bay Rays as the high powered Toronto Blue Jays came to town. Series against division rivals go a long way towards winning divisions, and the Rays took care of business, taking 2 of 3 from the visiting Jays.

Game 1

39. 5. 21. Final. 2

Game 1 started off as a low scoring battle, with the Rays adding 2 runs in the first 5 innings on good situational hitting from Ji-Man Choi and Mike Zunino. After the Blue Jays rallied back to tie the game, Manuel Margot answered with a go ahead base hit in the 8th, and the Rays added on two more to take the game by the final of 5-2.

Game 2

39. 1. 21. Final. 5

Game 2 was a different story. Both teams added runs in the first, with Yandy Diaz going deep off of starter Hyun Jin Ryu.

The scoring would remain even until the top of the 8th inning, where the Blue Jays broke the game open with home runs from Teoscar Hernandez and Danny Jensen, as well as an RBI single from Lourdes Gurriel Jr to take the game 5-1.

Game 3

0. 39. 3. 21. Final

The rubber match featured a pitching dual between Blue Jay's Alex Manoah and five different Rays pitchers. Jeffery Springs gave the Rays 4.2 solid innings of work, and the bullpen would take the rest of the game and continue to shut out the high powered Blue Jays offense.

The scoring in this game mostly game on mistakes from Toronto in the 8th inning, as Brandon Lowe would score on a throwing error, Wander Franco came around on a wild pitch, and then Choi drove in Harold Ramirez on an RBI single to finish the scoring in the 3-0 series clinching win.

The Good - The Rays Pitching Staff

Coming into any series against an offense like the Blue Jays, your pitching staff faces real tests in terms of both quality of your top end guys and depth of your staff as a whole. Tampa Bay showed up and delivered in this weekend series.

The Rays were able to hold Toronto to just 7 total runs in the series, with 4 of those runs coming in the 8th inning of game 2. Limiting an offense with the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Matt Chapman, and Teoscar Hernandez is no small feat, and the Rays did so rather easily.

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Faced with a slew of injuries to pitchers Tyler Glasnow, Shane Baz, Luis Patino, Peter Fairbanks, and Nick Anderson, it should come as a huge encouragement to Rays fans to see their pitching staff competition with some of the best offenses in the game, even with a very depleted staff.

The Bad - Stop and Start Offense

Although the Rays were able to score 9 runs in the series, the club lacked the consistent scoring needed to put up big numbers against some of the better teams in baseball.

Scoring is down around the league at the moment, but the Rays reliance on extra base hits to score runs will be costly unless they begin mashing like the best in the league. Tampa Bay currently has a team on base percentage of just .301, which makes it difficult to put up runs throughout a game. The Rays mainly relied on big innings this series (6 of their 9 runs came in just 2 of the 27 innings played), and that can only carry a team so far.

As the Rays look to improve as the season progresses, finding ways to put up runs throughout the game will help take pressure off of the pitching staff and allow the club to win in more ways than just getting hot for a few batter stretch.

The Ugly - Ryan Thompson

The writing was on the wall for Ryan Thompson's day when he gave up a go-ahead home run to lead off the inning to Hernandez, and the outpouring continued after that.

Gurriel Jr. would knock in Santiago Espinal to bring the score to 3-1 Blue Jays, and then catcher Danny Jensen would extend the lead on the very next pitch with a two-run blast that would result in the eventual final score of 5-1 Toronto.

It feels a little unfair to call out a bad outing against an offense that can do damage like the Blue Jays, but Thompson was clearly off this game, and it cost the Rays a chance at a series sweep.

Thompson began the year with 11 scoreless appearances but has since given up 7 runs in his last 4 appearances. It has been an ugly stretch from the Rays reliever and he will need to get it back on track to remain in good standing with manager Ryan Cash.

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