Francisco, Pena homer in Rays 9-4 win over Jays; Romero loses 12th in a row

TORONTO – Ben Francisco and Carlos Pena hit home runs as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 9-4 on Sunday to hand Ricky Romero his 12th consecutive loss.

Tampa Bay rapped out a season-high 18 hits. The Blue Jays had eight hits including Edwin Encarnacion’s 37th homer of the season that scored two runs with two out in the ninth against Cesar Ramos.

A six-run second inning vaulted the Rays (73-61) to their second win in a row and gave them a split in the four-game series with the Blue Jays (60-73).

Romero (8-13) did not get an out from seven batters in the second inning.He was charged with seven runs on eight hits and a walk and did not strike out a batter on his one-plus innings to increase his earned-run average to 5.85.

The left-hander has not won in his 13 starts since June 22 at Miami when he beat the Marlins to go to 8-1 with a 4.34 ERA.

Rays’ left-hander David Price (17-5) allowed six hits, four walks and two runs and hit a batter while striking out five in 6 2/3 innings. He is 12-2 with a 2.29 ERA in his career against Toronto.

Desmond Jennings started the game with a single, took second on a bunt by B.J. Upton and scored on a double by Evan Longoria that left-fielder Rajai Davis played poorly.

Francisco, who began the season with Toronto and was acquired by Tampa Bay from Houston on Friday, led off the second with a home run.

Pena walked, Ryan Roberts doubled and Jose Molina singled to produce one run. Jennings singled in another run and Upton’s fly to right went for a single when Moises Sierra lost the ball in the sun.

Ben Zobrist singled in two runs and Chad Jenkins replaced Romero. Jeff Keppinger scored the final run of the inning with a grounder to third. Jenkins pitched five innings, allowing seven hits and two runs.

Pena led off the third with his 17th homer of the season. A double by Longoria, an infield single by Keppinger and a double by Francisco increased the lead to 9-0 in the fourth.

The Blue Jays’ first two hits came in the fourth, a single by Yorvit Torrealba and a double by Mike McCoy but no run resulted.

Toronto loaded the bases with one out in the seventh on two infield hits and a walk.Encarnacion drove in a run with a sacrifice fly on a foul out to first. Adam Lind’s infield hit resulted in another run.

Notes:Attendance at Rogers Centre was 18,568…. The Rays who entered the Sunday 4 1/2 games out of first in the American League East are home for three games with the division-leading New York Yankees starting Monday. …The Blue Jays plan to finish the season with a six-man rotation but it has not been determined when it will start. Left-hander Aaron Laffey will return from the bullpen to the rotation when it does and when left-hander Brett Cecil returns from triple-A Las Vegas he will become a reliever again. ….Right-hander Carlos Villanueva (7-4, 3.10 earned-run average) will start for the Blue Jays Monday in the opener of a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles who will start left-hander Joe Saunders (0-1, 10.13 ERA).