TORONTO — The Rays seemed headed to a feel-good win Monday, as surprise Triple-A call-up Cooper Criswell gave them a strong three-plus-inning start and the offense did enough to put a one-run, eighth-inning lead in the hands of their best high-leverage reliever, Jason Adam.
Instead, they ended up feeling horribly, as Adam allowed a two-run homer to Bo Bichette with two outs in the eighth that instead gave the Blue Jays a 3-2 win in the opening game of a key five-games-in-four-days series between two of the American League wild-card contenders.
Adam allowed a leadoff single to Raimel Tapia and a steal of second base, then retired George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Adam got ahead 1-2 on Bichette, the Lakewood High product who has been on a tear for Toronto, before giving up the blast to leftfield.
The loss was the third straight for the Rays, dropping them to 78-61 and third among the three wild-card contenders, behind the Mariners and Blue Jays.
Rookie Jonathan Aranda drove in the first run for the Rays, veteran Manuel Margot the second after some good hustle from Randy Arozarena, and four relievers followed Criswell, a 26-year-old with one previous big-league appearance who was a July waiver claim from the Angels and had been pitching well at Triple-A Durham.
The Rays, who hadn’t held a lead since the end of Friday night’s game at Yankee Stadium, went ahead in the second inning Monday with three straight singles off Jays starter Jose Berrios.
David Peralta started the rally with a hit to left. Margot went to center. And rookie Jonathan Aranda, starting at second under a plan to get him more at-bats, delivered the run with a single to right.
After the first nine Jays went down in order, they struck quickly off Criswell in the fourth to even the score. Springer drew a leadoff walk, then in a span of three pitches Guerrero and Bichette both singled to tie it.
The Rays went back ahead in the sixth after Arozarena singled with one out. Though his bid for a 29th stolen base was negated by Peralta taking ball four, Arozarena’s hustle to second paid off as Jays catcher Danny Jansen made an errant throw. That allowed Arozarena to get to third, and he scored from there on Margot’s infield grounder.
There were some heated tempers as well.
Bichette reacted angrily after being hit in the helmet by reliever Javy Guerra in the home sixth, slamming down and then tossing his bat and staring angrily at the mound. Berrios then hit Francisco Mejia to start the Rays’ seventh, leading the umpires to huddle and issue a warning to both benches.
Criswell, 6-foot-6, 200 pounds, pitched in eight games for the Bulls, starting three, working three-four innings each time. He was 1-0 with a 3.95 ERA and 22 strikeouts and five walks over 27-1/3 innings. He doesn’t throw overly hard, usually in the 88-92 mph range, but throws strikes and pitches to contact, mixing a sinker, slider, cutter and changeup, and was tough on righties.
All of which made him appealing to fill the hole in the Rays rotation when Ryan Yarbrough, who was slated to work Monday, was needed for five innings Sunday due to Luis Patino’s short start.
