TAMPA, Fla. — The Toronto Blue Jays are closing in on winning the American League East, but one thing remains true. They still can't find a way to beat the Tampa Bay Rays on a regular basis.
The Rays shut out the division leader on Thursday, winning 4-0. They are now 7-3 against Toronto, and split this four game series. They are 6-0-2 in their last eight season series dating back to 2017, and that's the longest streak against one foe in franchise history.
"I think we played a very good series. We won two games, and then we had two games that were, with one swing of the bat, maybe the outcome changes,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It doesn't change anything, but that's how we're going to look at it now."
Right-hander Shane Baz was spectacular, throwing five innings of scoreless ball, allowing just two hits while picking up his 10th win of the season. It was his sixth scoreless start in his up-and-down season, and the second in his last four starts. He pitched six scoreless innings against Seattle on Sept. 1.
He maintained his mastery over the Blue Jays, too. He's started six times against the Blue Jays, and the Rays have won every game. Baz is 4-0 with a 2.23 earned run average.
Baz is now 10-12 on the season, with a 4.99 ERA. The Rays scored three runs for him early in the second inning, and that was all he needed. In 16 starts when receiving three runs of support this season, he has gone 9-1 with a 3.31 ERA and 106 strikeouts. In those games, the Rays are 12-3, and they are 22-5 in his career in those games.
Two straight wins over the Jays prevented them from clinching a playoff spot. They'll have to do it this weekend in Kansas City instead. The Rays (75-78) aren't going to the playoffs — they're eliminated with their next loss — but they played some good baseball these past two days in 4-0 and 2-1 where their pitching dominated from start to finish.
“Anytime you can win it’s good, but we don’t want to have people celebrate on our field,” Baz said.
The Rays' bullpen was stellar as well. Griffin Jax, Kevin Kelly, Garrett Cleavinger and Bryan Baker all pitched scoreless innings, allowing just two combined hits.
In the second inning, four Rays rookies — catcher Hunter Feduccia, shortstop Carson Williams, first baseman Bob Seymour and center fielder Chandler Simpson — all singled consecutively, and then veteran Brandon Lowe added another RBI single to put the Rays ahead 3-0.
They added another run in the sixth when Williams led off the inning with a home run. It was his fourth homer of the year in 70 at-bats. He's hitting just .186 so far in 23 games after being pressed into duty when Taylor Walls and Ha-Seong Kim went down with injuries.
But he showed signs Thursday of why he's the Rays' No. 1 prospect. This was his third multi-hit game, but the first since Aug. 25, when he did it twice in his first three games.
“We want those guys to get used to winning and not just rolling out there and laying down and losing,” starter Shane Baz said. “We know that we have a lot of our future here, and yeah, we just want to make sure that they have the right culture and the right mindset and they get used to winning.”
The Rays conclude their outdoor summer of 2025 this weekend with a series against the Boston Red Sox. They'll play three night games at Steinbrenner Field before concluding the season in Baltimore and Toronto.