Wednesday, 4 a.m.

He is not a regular hero. He just plays one every now and then.

Ben Williamson, the middle-infielder of the Tampa Bay Rays, snuck a single up the middle to drive his team to a 4-3 victory over Toronto at Tropicana Field Tuesday night.

It was the Rays' fifth straight win, and their 10th in the last 11 games. The Rays are 23-12 on the season.

Williamson, a .266 hitter, slapped a 2-1 pitch off Tyler Rogers to lead the comeback. It highlighted a two-run eighth that overcame a 3-2 deficit to win.

Jonathan Aranda started the uprising, doubling to left field with one out. Yandy Diaz then drove in pinch-runner Taylor Walls. After Jake Fraley singled, Williamson drove in the winning run.

The Jays leapt to a 2-0 lead when Kazuma Okamoto homered in the first and Andres Gimenez singled in Daulton Varsho.

The Rays came back to tie the game, Jonathan Aranda singled in Chandler Simpson in the third. In the fourth, Hunter Feduccia grounded into a double play to bring home another run.

Toronto went back ahead, 3-2, Yohendrick Pinango singled in Gimenez.

Simpson, Aranda, Fraley and Williamson all had two hits for the Rays.

Drew Rasmussen went six innings and allowed three earned runs. Casey Legumina got his first win for the Rays. Cole Susler had his second save.

The Rays and Jays play again today at 1:10 p.m. Shane McClanahan will start for the Rays against Patrick Corbin.

Tuesday, 4 a.m.

Are you bored yet? Are you tired of seeing win after win by these Tampa Bay Rays?

Of course not.

The Rays followed their recent formula again Monday night in a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. They got stellar pitching (again) and enough hitting (again). They won their 10th game of their last 11. They got a spark from an unknown hero (again).

Ryan Vilade hit a three-run homer in the first, and Taylor Walls had a two-run single in the sixth to lead the offense.

Vilade, whose squeeze bunt helped the Rays' Sunday win, had just 40 at-bats on the year coming into the game. He had only one career home run in his major league career. But he drove the first pitch he saw on Sunday 413 feet into the left-field stands.

Nick Martinez won his third straight game, going five innings and allowing five hits and one unearned run. The Jays ended up with 10 hits themselves, but they were one-for-eight with runners in scoring position.

Jonathan Aranda, who had four hits on Sunday, added three more on Monday. Ben Williamson had two hits.

Bryan Baker closed out the game, earning his ninth save on just three pitches.

The Rays and Jays play again tonight at 6:40 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Drew Rasmussen will start for the Rays against Kevin Gausman.

Monday, 4 a.m.

It ended with their best weapon, Nikita Kucherov, taking their last shot.

He missed.

As much as anything else, you can blame the shortcomings of the Tampa Bay Lightning on that. In the end, there was just too little Kucherov for the Bolts, and too much Montreal.

The Canadiens slammed shut the door on the Lightning series with a 2-1 Game Seven victory. It was the fourth straight season that Tampa Bay has been ousted in the first round.

It was the third game the Canadiens have won in Tampa's Benchmark International Arena.

In the end, Montreal was one goal better than the Lightning. Or, you could suggest that the job the Canadiens did on Kucherov made them better.

Kucherov was one of the top scorers in the league this year. But in the playoffs, he went scoreless for the final three games. He didn't score a goal in the last four.

As much as Kucherov had led the Bolts, that hurt.

Montreal allowed one goal in their Game Seven win, that to Dominic James in the second period.

Montreal, meanwhile, had no shots at all in the second period, only four in the first two periods and nine for the full game.

Still, Nick Suzuki scored in the first period and Alex Newhook in the third to win.

Montreal advances to play Buffalo in the second round. Tampa Bay, of course, goes home.