The Tampa Bay Rays rallied from a 3-1 eighth-inning deficit thanks to four home runs to take the opener from the Toronto Blue Jays 7-3 Friday at Rogers Centre.
The first of the four homers came from Corey Dickerson, who led off the inning against Marcus Stroman with his sixth home run of the season. After the right-hander struck out Kevin Kiermaier, Blue jays manager John Gibbons decided to go to the bullpen, bringing in Jason Grilli, and Evan Longoria made the decision backfire with his fourth homer of the year to tie the game. Brad Miller walked in front of a strikeout by Steven Souza Jr, but Gibbons again made a pitching change to bring in Dominic Leone to face Logan Morrison. Again, the decision backfired on Toronto as Morrison launched a two-run homer to the second deck in center to give Tampa Bay the lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Derek Norris added on in the ninth off Leone, hitting his first homer as a member of the Rays to make it 6-3. Corey Dickerson then doubled, moved to third on a fielding error by Devon Travis and scored when former Rays J.P. Howell uncorked a wild pitch.
Norris originally got Tampa Bay on the scoreboard in the second, with an RBI single scored Tim Beckham for a 1-0 lead.
Blake Snell couldn't hold the lead through the fifth, as Darwin Barney's RBI single scored Kevin Pillar, and two batters later Kendrys Morales' double play grounder brought in Barney to break the tie.
Snell left after the fifth for Austin Pruitt, who allowed a solo homer to Pillar, but improved to 3-0 on the season working through the eighth inning.
Jumbo Diaz began the ninth, giving up another double to Pillar, a single to pinch-hitter Chris Coghlan, and a sacrifice fly to Bautista to see the deficit cut back to 7-4, but Chase Whitley got the final two outs to record his first big-league save.
The win evens the Rays record on the road trip at 2-2, but also gets Tampa Bay back to .500 at 12-12.
Tampa Bay can go for a series win Saturday afternoon as Matt Andriese (1-0, 3.86 ERA) taking on Francisco Liriano (1-2, 4.58 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:07, with coverage on WDAE beginning at noon with The Inside Pitch, presented by Sykes Lakeland.
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