Rays drop home finale to Jays: Rays 1, Blue Jays 7

Sep 25, 2022 - 8:25 PM

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The Rays entered Sunday’s afternoon matchup against the Blue Jays with hopes to leave Tropicana Field on good terms. That did not happen as they dropped the final regular season home game of the year by a score of 7-1.

Shane McClanahan looked to rebound after his last start against the Astros. That did not happen either as he allowed four runs on three bombs in five innings of work. His line for the day was: 5 IP / 6H / 4ER / 2K / 2BB

McClanahan was not particularly sharp throughout his start and paid the price three separate times. In the 2nd inning, Kirk launched his 14th homer of the year. And, in the 3rd and 5th innings, George Springer launched his 23rd and 34th bombs of the year driving in a total of 3 runs.

McClanahan was not the only Rays pitcher to allow the long ball as Cleavinger surrendered a two-run blast to Hernandez in the 8th to give the Jays a 6-1 lead.

The Jays would tack on one final run against Ogando in the top of the 9th as Tapia scored following a leadoff triple.

At the plate, the Rays bats were quiet for the second consecutive night. In the early part of the game, they made solid contact against Ross Stripling but failed to string together any hits. They scored only one run via a sacrifice fly from Randy Arozarena in the 3rd inning.

The Rays offense totaled seven hits, only two of which went for extra bases. Both Walls and Arozarena doubled. Randy’s double was #41 on the year, the most by a Rays player since Longoria matched that number in 2016.

Overall the Rays looked rather lifeless for the second day in a row. They end their final home stand of the year 4-6 and will play their final 9 games on the road. They will be off Monday as they travel to Cleveland for a three game set that starts Tuesday.

This was a disappointing and deflating end to the series for a Rays team that won the first two games and scored twenty total runs only to drop the final two games and score two total runs.

The long ball killed the Rays for the second consecutive night as they dropped to two games back of the Jays for the top spot in the wild card race. Hopefully the Rays hit the reset button before their final road trip of the regular season.