Blue Jays lose to Rays, hold ground in AL races

TORONTO — The Rays added a dent in the Blue Jays’ playoff hopes for a second straight day, using a pair of home runs and a stellar pitching performance to earn an 8-1 rubber-game victory over Toronto on Wednesday afternoon at Rogers Centre.

The Blue Jays are two games behind the first-place Red Sox in the American League East and hold down the second AL Wild Card slot, one game behind the Orioles, who are holding the top Wild Card spot.

After getting no-hit through the first three innings against Marco Estrada, Tampa Bay’s offense came to life with three runs in the fourth inning, three in the sixth, and two in the ninth. Corey Dickerson finished 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and a season-high-tying four RBIs, while Kevin Kiermaier added a two-run homer to pace the Rays’ attack. Five Tampa Bay hitters finished with multihit games.

Rays starter Alex Cobb pitched 6 2/3 innings of two-hit ball while striking out four. Cobb allowed just a single run in the first and retired 18 of the final 20 batters he faced. Ryan Garton and Steve Geltz went the rest of the way with 2 1/3 hitless innings.

“Another good win,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We were talking about it on the bench, funny game. Estrada comes out, punches five guys out real quick. Cobb gives up a quick early run. But we shifted gears big time. He got on an incredible run. Really efficient. Using his pitches. And we seemed to have gotten enough of Estrada to get him out of the game drive his pitch count up and get some runs off him.”

“These guys are all trying to do good, they’re all trying to come through, they’re all trying to get on base and get the big hit and things like that,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “Then things start snowballing. I’ve got to believe we’re at rock bottom. I don’t see how much lower it can go. I’m optimistic this will turn in a hurry.”

Estrada’s outing spiraled downward after having his early no-hit bid broken up in the fourth. The finesse right-hander lasted 5 1/3 innings and allowed four earned runs — the fifth time he’s allowed four runs or more in his past six starts.

“Our team morale is still high and we’re picking everybody up every inning but it’s just hard to explain this,” Estrada said. “I guess when things are going bad they stay there for a bit. The good thing is we can only go up from here. I know …

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