Blue Jays’ late rally thwarted in costly loss

TORONTO — The Tampa Bay Rays came into Rogers Centre and played the role of spoiler on Tuesday night, using a pair of long balls and some ninth-inning insurance to earn a 6-2 victory over the Blue Jays.

Alexei Ramirez hit a three-run blast in the fifth off Toronto starter Marcus Stroman, while Steven Souza Jr. added a solo shot in the seventh to power the Rays’ offense and hand the Blue Jays a critical loss in their postseason chase.

The Blue Jays remained two games behind the Red Sox for first place in the American League East, after Boston lost to Baltimore, and they fell back into a tie with the Orioles for the top AL Wild Card spot.

Rays starter Drew Smyly improved to 4-0 lifetime at Rogers Centre, pitching 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball. Smyly’s only blemish was a two-run home run to Russell Martin in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Rays escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh that saw Danny Farquhar strike out Edwin Encarnacion to end the threat.

“Exciting win,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “That’s the kind of atmosphere we’ve been talking about. It’s a good experience for myself, for everybody that’s involved there, because that place got pretty loud there in the seventh inning. We had guys we called up that really came through right there. That was great to see.”

Stroman took the loss after allowing three earned runs over six innings of work. The 25-year-old right-hander battled command of his sinker all night, walking four batters for the first time since June 26.

“My stuff feels great,” Stroman said. “But we’re at the point in September where we need to be getting wins, so it’s frustrating. Wash it and get to the next one, but at the end of the day, we have to start winning games here. The whole morale of the team is confident, we just have to go out there and do it.”

Tampa Bay added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth on a Logan Forsythe force out and a run-scoring wild pitch. The victory was the Rays’ 10th of the season against the Blue Jays and gives Tampa Bay the season series for the eighth time in nine years.

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