Hot off yet another home series sweep, the Rays welcomed the Blue Jays to Tropicana Field for the opener of a three-game series.
Nick Martinez starts the series opener, bringing a 1.70 ERA into the game after six starts on the season. Start number seven began with a one-pitch flyout, and ended without a runner scoring after a walk and a single.
The bottom of the first started off with a Chandler Simpson (hard hit!) single, and he moved up to second after Junior Caminero drew a walk. Ryan Vilade swung at the first pitch he saw, and sent it 413 feet over the left field wall to give the Rays a quick 3-0 lead.
Martinez followed his scoreless first with a 1-2-3 second, and opened the third inning with a strikeout for his third on the night. After the punch-out to open the frame, he allowed three-straight singles, putting the Blue Jays on the board for their first run of the game. He prevented any other runs from scoring with a groundout and a lineout to end the frame.
Both offenses were quiet through five innings, and Martinez would be lifted before the sixth with 71 pitches thrown. 51 of those were for strikes, with one run allowed on five hits, while striking out four. Ian Seymour entered in relief, and he kept the score at 3-1 for the offense to add to it in the bottom-half.
Jonathan Aranda hit a one-out single up the middle in the bottom of the sixth, and he moved up to second after Ben Williamson hit a two-out single. Both runners moved up on the third single in the inning, this one by Nick Fortes. With a pitching change made on the Blue Jays side, Taylor Walls stepped up and quickly hit the fourth single of the inning, scoring Aranda and Williamson and extending the lead to 5-1.
Seymour allowed a one-out double in the seventh, but Kevin Kelly entered and stranded that runner with the next two outs. Cole Sulser worked the eighth and needed only 10 pitches to set the Blue Jays down 1-2-3.
Casey Legumina was brought in to pitch the ninth, making his third appearance with the Rays after being acquired from Seattle in late April. He allowed the first runner to reach on a weakly-hit single, but quickly got a double play to bring the Blue Jays down to their final out. Unfortunately for Legumina, the weak hits weren’t done, as he allowed two more to land, causing Kevin Cash to call in Bryan Baker for the final out.
Baker needed three pitches to get the game-ending flyout to right, securing the 5-1 victory to open the series.
Nick Martinez worked five great innings to earn the win, and the bullpen preserved the lead that Ryan Vilade gave the squad all the way back in the first. Drew Rasmussen takes the mound for the Rays tomorrow night against Kevin Gausman and the Blue Jays, with first pitch scheduled for 6:40pm inside Tropicana Field.
