Rays come up short against Blue Jays, finish road trip at 3-5

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Jul 23, 2026

Published in Baseball

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TORONTO — The Rays headed home Thursday evening disappointed by how their road trip ended, with a 3-1 loss to the Blue Jays.

After getting swept in a four-game series in Boston, the Rays looked in position to break even after winning the first three against the Blue Jays. But they fell short in the finale, a 3-5 record to show for their week’s work.

They will face some additional challenges during a nine-game homestand against three of the other five American League teams that went into play Thursday at .500 or better in the Guardians, Rangers and White Sox.

Overall, the Rays are an AL-best 59-43 and have a two-game East Division lead over the Yankees.

The Rays had a quiet afternoon at the plate, held to just three hits and none after the fourth inning.

The Blue Jays grabbed the early lead with a first-inning run off opener Casey Legumina. Ernie Clement singled with two outs, went to second on George Springer’s walk and scored from there on a bouncer to third by Alejandro Kirk that Junior Caminero had a couple of chances to make a play on.

Caminero initially tried and missed on a bare-handed pickup. With the ball rolling away, Clement raced past Caminero and headed home. Caminero tried again to pick up the ball and failed, though it probably would have been too late to get Clement out at the plate.

Caminero did eventually scoop the ball and tossed it to shortstop Ben Williamson at third, but it was too late to get Springer, who had kept running. Legumina limited the Jays to one run by striking out Kazuma Okamoto.

The Rays tied the score in the third when Hunter Feduccia doubled with two outs and scored — after, oddly, pausing after he rounded third — on Yandy Diaz’s single. The hit was Diaz’s 999th with the Rays and his 1,074th overall.

Lefty Ian Seymour took over in the third and promptly gave up the go-ahead run. Yohendrick Pinango led off with a double, sliding into second just ahead of a strong throw by right fielder Victor Mesa Jr., and scored on a two-out, full-count single by Springer.

The Jays added a run in the seventh when No. 9 hitter Myles Straw drew a one-out walk, stole second with two outs and scored on a single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.