Rays blow lead, then come from behind to beat Jays

by Gary Shelton on April 8, 2017 · 0 comments

in general, Tampa Bay Rays

Rays' manager Kevin Cash tries to figure out his Rays' latest win./jEFFREY S. KING

Rays' manager Kevin Cash tries to figure out his Rays' latest win./jEFFREY S. KING

Saturday, 4 a.m.

They fell behind early. They rallied.

They took a big lead. They lost it.

They made a nice comeback. They held it.

When it was all done, the Tampa Bay Rays had won a wild one against the Toronto Blue Jays Friday night, winning by a score of 10-8 after losing a 6-2 lead.

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Rays' Kevin Kiermaier steals third in Tampa Bay victory./JEFFREY S.  KING

Rays' Kevin Kiermaier steals third in Tampa Bay victory./JEFFREY S. KING

For the third time in five games, the Rays jumped on the opposing starter. Toronto's Francisco Liriano lasted only one-third of an inning, giving up five earned runs and leaving with an ERA of 135.00. But the Blue Jays pecked away at the lead, and went ahead 7-6. The Rays, however, had a comeback of their own to win.

Daniel Robertson gets his first MLB hit  in the first./JEFFREY S. KING

Rookie Daniel Robertson had his first hit as a Ray./JEFFREY S. KING

“This is the first interesting one of the season,” said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. “The back-and-forth. We have a lot of them here. (I'm) glad to get it out and have the win.

"It wasn’t by any means the prettiest game, but really impressed with some big hits, timely hitting, and Danny Farquhar. He really stepped up for us, the way he came through. I asked a lot of him and did everything he could to keep the lead for us.”

The Rays had 13 hits, including a home run by Evan Longoria (his second of the season). Ricky Weeks, Logan Morrison and Corey Dickerson all had two hits, with Morrison's and Dickerson's coming after they came off the bench.

Xavier Cedeno got the win for the Rays, although he got only one out and walked two. Alex Colome got his third save in as many tries.

Outfielder Steven Souza Jr. said he was glad to see his team's offense.

Cedeno pitched only a third of an inning but got the win./JEFFREY S. KING

“It’s good,” he said. “I think it’s good for our starting pitchers and it’s good for our bullpen to know that we can come back. These last two games have shown that we can fight back. We fell short yesterday, but being able to come through and be resilient, is pretty good.”

Among those with hits was rookie Daniel Robertson, who had his first career hit.

“It felt amazing, to say the least, and to just get it out of the way. Obviously, I feel like that first one is the toughest one to get and then you start trickling 0-for-8, 0-for-10 and then you start thinking about it. It just felt really good. I knew I was facing a tough pitcher, but I was trying to be aggressive early, especially with runners on. I got a pitch to my liking and put a good swing on it.”

The Rays and Blue Jays play again today at 6:10 p.m. Chris Archer goes for his second win for the Rays against Aaron Sanchez.

Rickie Weeks makes a play on a line down first./JEFFREY S. KING

 

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