TORONTO — It should come as no surprise, given the final score, that the Rays did an awful lot of things well throughout their 12-2 win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre.
Drew Rasmussen pitched into the sixth inning, bouncing back from a couple rough starts before the All-Star break. Chandler Simpson and Ben Williamson each had four hits. Nick Fortes homered for the second time in as many days as part of a three-hit, four-RBI night. Yandy Díaz blasted a three-run homer in the ninth inning of his 1,000th Major League game.
The Rays racked up a season-high 21 hits overall, tied for the third most in a game in franchise history and their most since a 17-2 win over the Orioles on Sept. 5, 2007. That was also the last time Tampa Bay had eight players record multiple hits in the same game, as the lineup did Tuesday night for the sixth time in team history.
“They were incredible,” Rasmussen said. “That’s unbelievable. Nights like this don’t happen very often.”
But it likely would have been a different story if not for what happened in the first inning. Those six outs and 60 pitches defined the night for both the struggling Blue Jays and the first-place Rays, who improved their American League-leading record to 58-42 after 100 games.
For the Rays: two outs, nobody on … and three runs. For the Jays: bases loaded, one out … and nothing to show for it.
Manager Kevin Cash and several players agreed that Díaz effectively set the tone for the entire night in the game’s first at-bat. He saw 12 pitches from Toronto starter Kevin Gausman, including six foul balls, before lining out to center field. Jonathan Aranda was quickly retired after that, but the Rays — like Díaz — wouldn’t go down easily.
“A lot of impressive at-bats, and I think Yandy’s at-bat was very impressive,” Cash said.
Junior Caminero drew the first of his three walks to start the two-out rally. Up came Cedric Mullins, who fell behind in the count before pulling a double to right field. That brought up Jonny DeLuca, who swung at a pitch outside the strike zone and knocked it to right, driving in Caminero and Mullins.
The Rays lead the Majors this season with a .262 average in two-out situations with runners in scoring position. How do they do it?
“Just not changing who we are in those situations, not getting too big or too small or changing when there’s runners in scoring position,” DeLuca said. “Just staying [with] the plan and approach that we have normally, and it works out.”
But the Rays weren’t done. DeLuca stole second to get himself in scoring position. Then Simpson, whose four-hit night continued his personal hot streak, worked another full count before swatting an RBI single to center. Williamson added another single before Taylor Walls struck out, finally ending the 38-pitch inning.
“It just attests to everything that we can do in the lineup,” said Simpson, whose speed on the bases later forced a rare error by center fielder Daulton Varsho. “We can win it with speed, put the bat on the ball. We can also use the power game as well to win ballgames.”
Still, the Rays risked wasting that momentum if they let the Blue Jays respond. When Rasmussen gave up singles to three of Toronto’s first four batters, it looked like that might be a possibility. But not for long.
With the bases loaded and one out, Rasmussen needed only two pitches to get Varsho to harmlessly pop out. Up came the powerful Kazuma Okamoto, who took a first-pitch cutter for strike one. After throwing one two-seamer well above the zone, Rasmussen forced Okamoto to whiff on another two-seamer before firing a cutter that Okamoto could only flail after.
“We needed a shutdown inning,” Cash said. “Sometimes those shutdown innings come in the fifth or sixth. Sometimes they come in the first, and we needed it.”
“That was huge, because they very easily could have grabbed some momentum back,” Fortes agreed. “Credit to him for keeping the runs off the board. I think that really helped propel the offense after that inning, for sure.”
While the Rays continued to score, Rasmussen returned to his All-Star form. Overall, he allowed two runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out five in five-plus innings. But he was quick to deflect the credit after the lopsided victory, and understandably so.
Everyone played a part in the Rays’ romp past Gausman and the Blue Jays’ bullpen, from the leadoff-hitting Díaz to the No. 9-hitting Fortes.
It was so impressive that Rasmussen sought out assistant hitting coach Ozzie Timmons afterward, seeking the answer to a fairly straightforward question.
“Why don’t we do this every night?”
