Home runs hurt the Toronto Blue Jays tonight as they were creamed in front of home crowd at the Rogers Center by the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 6-1.
The Jays opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when rookie, Brett Lawrie, hit a solo home run over the left field fence.
Jay’s starting pitcher, Henderson Alvarez retired the first seven batters before hitting John Jaso with a wild pitch at the top of the third inning. Later in the same inning, Desmond Jennings gave Tampa a 2-1 lead by hitting a two run homer, which brought in Jaso.
The Blue Jays threatened to score with two on base in the bottom of the third inning, but were unable to bring in any runs.
Things got worse for Toronto as Ray’s third baseman, Evan Longoria, came up at the top of the fourth inning and hit his first of two home runs of the night to give Tampa a 3-1 lead.
In the sixth inning, Longoria hit his second home run to give the Rays a three run cushion.
Tampa continued to hit the long ball as Jaso came up in the seventh inning and hit a solo home run.
Meanwhile, Tampa’s starting pitcher, James Shields, was almost unhittable throughout the game, retiring the Jay’s batters one by one.
The Rays increased their lead in the ninth inning when Matt Joyce scored on a wild pitch.
Shields shut down the Jays in the bottom of the ninth and recorded his 10th complete game victory of the season.
Game notes: W: Shields (12-10, 2.96 ERA) 9 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 12 Ks
L: Alvarez (0-2, 6 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 6 Ks.
Longoria: 2 for 4, 2 R, 2 HR, 2 RBIs