Yandy Díaz homers, Drew Rasmussen earns 6th straight win as the Rays beat the Blue Jays 7-6

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Yandy Díaz hit a two-run homer, Drew Rasmussen earned his sixth consecutive win and Bryan Baker converted his 25th straight save opportunity to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 7-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

The Rays led 7-1 before Toronto scored four runs in the fifth and another in the sixth to make it a one-run game. But, the Rays’ bullpen shut down Toronto’s last 12 batters, and Baker got the last three outs for his major league-leading 36th save.

McAdoo, who was stranded at second base in the ninth, stole his first career base and led the Blue Jays with a career-high three hits. Alejandro Kirk homered and drove in two runs for Toronto.

Rasmussen (13-5) retired his first eight batters before McAdoo legged out an infield single in the third. Kirk’s solo homer in the fourth broke up the shutout.

Rasmussen is the fifth pitcher in Rays history to win six straight starts and the first since Blake Snell won a franchise-best nine in a row in 2018.

Toronto starter Max Scherzer (1-6) struggled in the fourth, when the Rays sent nine batters to the plate. The 42-year-old right-hander allowed five runs in the inning on three hits as the small-ball Rays scored three times on balls that didn’t leave the infield.

Díaz got Tampa Bay on the board with his two-run shot, his 19th this season, in the bottom of the first.

Tampa Bay capitalized on a rough outing by Jesús Sánchez, who struggled to track two fly balls against the Tropicana Field roof. Junior Caminero’s first-inning fly bounced in front of Sánchez for a ground-rule double. In the fourth, Richie Palacios’ high fly eluded Sánchez and ended up as a two-run double.

Díaz, Chandler Simpson and Taylor Walls each extended hitting streaks to 10 games.

Toronto’s Brett Batemen left following his third-inning groundout with right hamstring tightness.

Up next

Blue Jays RHP Shane Bieber (4-2, 4.99 ERA) faces Rays LHP Ian Seymour (9-3, 4.11) in the series finale Thursday.

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