Rays beat Blue Jays again, reach quarter mark of season at AL-best 27-13

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on May 11, 2026

Published in Baseball

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TORONTO — The Tampa Bay Rays reached the quarter point of their season on Monday with a performance that reflected why they have an American League-best 27-13 record.

They played small ball to take an early lead, with speedster Chandler Simpson leading the way. There was a home run by American League RBI leader Jonathan Aranda. A solid six-inning start from Drew Rasmussen. Three innings of relief work. An impressive running catch in the ninth by center fielder Cedric Mullins.

And they got their ninth win in the last 10 games, 15th in 17 and 25th in 33 by beating the Blue Jays 8-5.

The Rays have the second-best record in the majors, a half game behind the Atlanta Braves, and a two-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East.

“We’ve had a lot of fun on the baseball field,” Tuesday starter Shane McClanahan said before the game. “Obviously playoffs are the goal. We are a quarter of the way through the season. We’re not worried about that. We’re worried about today and tomorrow, and you focus on that stuff and it’ll all take care of itself.”

They took care of things Monday from the start, scoring three in the first inning. Simpson got them started by hitting a slow grounder toward the mound and racing to first for an infield single. A Junior Caminero single and an Aranda sac fly produced one run, and after a two-out double by Jake Fraley, a Richie Palacios single made it 3-0.

The Rays extended the lead to 5-0 in the second. Hunter Feduccia singled and Taylor Walls tripled in one run. Simpson reached on a fielder’s choice grounder (as Walls was thrown out at home), stole second, went to third on an infield out and scored on Aranda’s single.

Rasmussen basically made one mistake in reaching the 100-pitch mark for the first time since his August 2024 return from a third major elbow surgery, allowing a three-run homer in the second to Andres Gimenez, the typically light-hitting Jays shortstop.

Gimenez single-handedly kept the Jays in the game, hitting a two-run blast in the seventh off reliever Ian Seymour for his first career multi-homer game.

Simpson created another run in the fourth when he reached on an infield single, went to second on a disengagement violation, stole third and scored on an errant throw.

The Rays added on in the fifth when Aranda led off with a blast over the center-field wall — his sixth homer at the Rogers Centre and 10th against the Jays of the 32 he has hit total. That also pushed his RBI total to 32.

Aranda got them another run in the seventh when he was hit by a pitch, moved up a base on two groundouts and scored on a Palacios single.

The 27-13 record matches the Rays’ third best through 40 games; the other came in the 2020 season when limited to 60 games due to COVID. They were better in 2023 (30-10) and 2010 (29-11).

Also of note, the Rays are 9-1 against AL East teams.

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