After watching their seven-ruTan lead disappear Saturday in Toronto, the Tampa Bay Rays were able to return the favor Sunday, rallying from an 8-1 deficit to defeat the Blue Jays 10-9 Sunday at Rogers Centre.
Toronto jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, as Justin Smoak started the inning with a solo blast off Yonny Chirinos, Billy McKinney then drew a walk with two out in the inning, and scored on a double by Teoscar Hernandez.
The Blue Jays doubled their lead an inning later, as Chirinos gave up a base hit to Cavan Biggio, and Freddy Galvis singled him to third base. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. struck out, but the ball got past Travis d'Arnaud and allowed Biggio to score, and two batters later, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled in Galvis for a 4-0 advantage.
Matt Duffy got the Rays on the board in the fifth with an RBI single, but Toronto countered with four more runs of their own in the bottom of the inning with a tworun double by Guerrero and a two-run homer by McKinney.
Tampa Bay put three runs up on the board in the sixth with a two-run double by d'Arnaud and an RBI single by Nate Lowe to cut the lead to 8-4, and when the Blue Jays got a run back in the bottom of the sixth, the Rays countered with Ji-Man Choi's two-run homer in the seventh to cut the deficit back to 9-6, and back-to-back home runs by Guillermo Heredia and Willy Adames in the eighth brought Tampa Bay back even.
The Rays loaded the bases in the ninth, but could manage just one run, on a groundout by Joey Wendle, but it would be enough to break the tie and make a winner of Chaz Roe, who worked a scoreless bottom of the eighth.
Oliver Drake and Diego Castillo combined to finish out the game, with Castillo earning his eighth save.
Tampa Bay moves back in front of the Boston Red Sox for second place in the American League East, but remain one half-game behind the Oakland Athletics for the second wild card.
TUESDAY'S MATCHUP
Tampa Bay Rays (60-48) at Boston Red Sox (59-48), 7:10 pm first pitch, with coverage on WDAE beginning at 6:00 with The Inside Pitch.
Rays starter: RHP Charlie Morton (12-3, 2.60 ERA)
Red Sox starter: LHP David Price (7-4, 3.66 ERA)