Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a two-run double in the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays came back to defeat the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 on Saturday.
Teoscar Hernandez added an RBI single in the eighth for Toronto. The teams have split the first two games of the three-game set.
Thomas Pannone (1-2) pitched around two errors in the seventh inning to earn the win in relief.
Ken Giles pitched around a single in the ninth and had two strikeouts to earn his fourth save in five opportunities.
Rays reliever Chaz Roe (0-2) gave up three hits and two runs in two-thirds of an inning in the bottom of the seventh after Blake Snell allowed one hit, one walk and struck out nine in six scoreless innings.
Clay Buchholz allowed six hits and one run with two strikeouts in six innings in his Blue Jays debut.
The Rays scored once in the sixth. Willy Adames led off with a double and scored on a single to left by Austin Meadows. Meadows continued to second when Hernandez overran the ball and took third on Tommy Pham's fly to center. First baseman Rowdy Tellez fielded Ji-Man Choi's grounder and threw home and Meadows was out in a rundown as the Blue Jays limited the damage.
Pannone replaced Buchholz in the seventh.
The Rays had a runner at third with one out in the seventh after second baseman Gurriel and catcher Luke Maile committed throwing errors on a grounder by Avisail Garcia. But Garcia was out at home trying to score on Kevin Kiermaier's fly out to left.
Roe replaced Snell in the seventh. Justin Smoak led off with an infield single and took third on Randal Grichuk's one-out double. Gurriel hit a two-run double to center.
Mike Zunino greeted reliever Joe Biagini with a triple in the top of the eighth as right fielder Alen Hanson made an ill-advised diving attempt. Meadows was intentionally walked with one out. Pham struck out and Tim Mayza replaced Biagini and struck out pinch hitter Daniel Robertson.
The Blue Jays added a run in the eighth against Jalen Beeks on walks to Maile and Smoak and an RBI single by Hernandez.
Pham extended his consecutive-games on-base streak to 47 games with a first-inning single.
--Field Level Media
Tampa Bay | Toronto | |
Blake Snell | Player | Clay Buchholz |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
6.0 | IP | 6.0 |
9 | Strikeouts | 2 |
1 | Hits | 6 |
0.00 | ERA | 1.50 |
Tampa Bay | Toronto | |
Austin Meadows | Player | Luke Maile |
2 | Hits | 1 |
1 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 1 |
.667 | Avg | .500 |