The Toronto Blue Jays won that game with one swing of the bat.
On Wednesday evening, the Blue Jays hosted the Tampa Bay Rays for the second of three games, defeating them 3-1 to move to 21-21 this season. Let’s take a look at what happened in this one!
The Rays took the lead in the top of the fourth. With Christopher Morel on third, Kameron Misner hit an RBI single to drive in the first run of the game to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.
It took a while for the Jays to score runs of their own, but they were finally able to do so in the bottom of the sixth. After a walk, a single, and two strikeouts, the Blue Jays were down to their final pitch of the inning, as Alejandro Kirk hit a 407-foot bomb to give the Jays a 3-1 lead.
WE 🚀 HAVE 🚀 LIFTOFF 🚀 pic.twitter.com/gu0qnwgmiF
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) May 15, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Takeaways…
Alejandro Kirk has really found his game as of late. On top of throwing out Chandler Simpson, one of the fastest runners in baseball, his bat has gotten going. Thanks to a single and a home run in this one, Kirk is now batting .293/.318/.398 with a 102 wRC+. That’s not too bad after a rough start.
It wasn’t the Blue Jays’ best game in terms of the bats. Kirk hit a home run, and George Springer hit a double. Like Kirk, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a two-hit game, with the other hits coming from Anthony Santander, Daulton Varsho, and Ernie Clement.
Chris Bassitt had a solid start. He nearly pitched a quality start, going five and two-thirds innings with one earned run allowed and six strikeouts to bring his season ERA to 3.16. He pitched well enough to give the Jays the win, even if he wasn’t awarded it.
The bullpen shut it down after Bassitt left the game. Aside from a fielding error by Guerrero Jr., the Jays’ bullpen didn’t give up a base runner. Brendon Little threw an inning and a third, striking out a batter and picking up the win, with his ERA moving to 1.86. Yariel Rodriguez had another good outing, throwing a clean inning with a strikeout. Yimi Garcia picked up his third save of the season, striking out a batter in a clean inning.
On Thursday, the Jays have a chance to win their second consecutive series. Kevin Gausman is expected to start for the Jays, with that game starting at 3:07 PM ET.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.