Spencer Horwitz gets the Blue Jays on the board with an infield hit. 👏
The Blue Jays’ comeback fell short as they lost 3-2 to the Rays
Photo credit: © Nathan Ray Seebeck - Imagn Images
Sep 21, 2024, 19:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 22, 2024, 11:02 EDT
Another day, another Toronto Blue Jays loss.
On Saturday evening, the Toronto Blue Jays fell 3-2 to the Tampa Bay Rays, bringing their record to 73-82.
The Rays took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second, as Ben Rortvedt singled in Jonathan Aranda. In the bottom of the third, Aranda hit his fifth home run of the season and his second in as many games to put the Rays up 3-0.
In the top of the fifth, Spencer Horwitz hit an infield single with runners on first and third to make it 3-1. Horwitz scored a run in the top of the seventh as well, as Alejandro Kirk hit a triple to make it 3-2. The comeback fell short though.
Diving into the stats…
Coming into Saturday’s game, Alejandro Kirk had played 427 games without hitting a triple. Well, that changed in the top of the seventh as the Rays’ right fielder miscalculated where the ball would land, letting it get by him. It took Kirk 14.28 seconds to go from home to third. Next up, an inside the park home run please.
It took Alejandro Kirk 14.28 seconds to run from home to 3rd on his first career MLB triple. This is NOT the slowest triple in MLB this season
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. set a new career-high in hits in a season with his first hit of the game, surpassing the 188 hits he had in 2021. In fact, he finished the game with 191 hits so far this season as he hit three singles.
Spencer Horwitz had a three-hit game, while Joey Loperfido hit his 13th double in the big leagues this season. Nathan Lukes and Leo Jiménez each hit a single, but the latter was sadly not hit by a pitch in this game.
Yariel Rodríguez was tagged with the loss, giving up three earned runs, three walks, and three strikeouts in four innings pitched to bring his season ERA to 4.41. Tommy Nance pitched an inning and a third of scoreless baseball, as did Brendon Little. Dillon Tate allowed two hits in a third of an inning, but didn’t give up a run. Génesis Cabrera closed out the game for the Jays, striking out a batter in a clean inning of work.
The Jays look to avoid the sweep on Sunday, as they’ll likely have a bullpen day against the Rays’ Shane Baz. Sunday’s game starts at 1:40 PM ET.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.