Tampa Bay Rays cruise to win over Toronto in front of smallest Trop crowd since April

The Tampa Bay Rays celebrate a victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. (AP Photo)

By The Associated Press
Last Updated:

ST. PETERSBURG (AP) --

Carlos Pena homered and drove in four runs, Wade Davis won his sixth straight decision and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 on Monday night.

Pena made it 5-1 with a three-run homer off Brett Cecil (11-7) in the third.

Davis (11-9) allowed two runs and six hits in 7 2-3 innings. The right-hander has the longest winning streak by a rookie in franchise history. He had shared with Jeff Niemann (2008) and Victor Zambrano (2001).

Chad Qualls replaced Davis with two on and two outs in the eighth and struck out Jose Bautista, who leads the majors with 42 home runs. Tampa Bay started Monday tied with the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East.

Aaron Hill hit his 20th homer of the season for the Blue Jays.

Cecil, who had beaten Tampa Bay in three other starts this season, gave up five runs - two earned - and five hits over seven innings.

Carl Crawford reached when Hill was charged with an error after moving in from second base and then misplaying a slow grounder with two outs in the third. After Evan Longoria had an infield single, Pena hit an opposite-field drive to left for his 26th homer this season.

Crawford had an RBI double and Pena hit a sacrifice fly to put the Rays up 2-0 in the first. Longoria had a sacrifice fly during the eighth that extended the Tampa Bay advantage to 6-2.

The Blue Jays pulled within 2-1 on a third-inning grounder by Travis Snider. Hill, who hit his 20th double this year during the second, added a fifth-inning solo homer.

The announced crowd was just 11,968.

Notes: The Rays are a major league-best 31-14 against left-handed starters. ... Toronto 1B Lyle Overbay missed his third consecutive game. Manager Cito Gaston said Overbay continues to not feel well and is undergoing tests. ... Tampa Bay reliever Grant Balfour (ribs) threw a perfect inning in his second minor league appearance for Class-A Charlotte. ... Blue Jays INF Yunel Escobar sat out for the second straight game with a stiff back. ... Toronto OF Vernon Wells was rested. ... Longoria has 16 RBIs in his last 16 games.

Comments

You must enable Javscript for comments to function.

POSTING PROCESS: Comments will appear on the page within 10 minutes of a submission. There is a 400 character limitation to each post and comments will be held to this restriction. If you see a post you feel violates the posting policy please click on Report this post for a staff member to review.

POSTING POLICY: Vulgar, obscene, and offensive language will not be tolerated. Anyone who uses such language in their post will not be allowed to participate in future comments. While we value freedom of speech, we also wish to protect our visitors from exposure to inflammatory content. Thank you.

COMMENTS BY USERS ARE NOT ENDORSED BY SERVICE PROVIDER: You can access the User Agreement at any time. Your use of and/or registration on any aspect of the Service will constitute your agreement to comply with these rules.