Blue Jays get swept in Tampa with a 5-1 loss.

The Blue Jays have dropped the first two games of the set. Trying to avoid a sweep in Tampa Bay they send out veteran hurler Mark Buehrle. The Rays sent out their streaking young pitcher Chris Archer. Going into the game Chris Archer had pitched 19 straight scoreless inning.

In the first inning the Jays had some offense brewing with 2 outs. Josh Donaldson slapped a single to right field. Edwin Encarnacion drew a walk after a tough at bat. Chris Archer was able to get out of the inning with a strikeout of Justin Smoak. While it was a scoreless inning the Jays made Archer work for it forcing him up to 23 pitches in a single inning.

Brandon Guyer led off the game for the Rays with a solo home run giving them a quick 1-0 lead. Evan Longoria continued to feast off the Jays with a single and mark 5 straight hits. He came in to score when Devon Travis failed to secure a pop up to shall right field. That gave the Rays a early 2-0 lead in the first.

In the 3rd inning Evan Longoria was able to get his 6th straight hit against the Blue Jays. That created a 1st and 3rd with one out. Mark Buehrle induced a popup and a flyout to escape the inning.

The Rays led off the 4th inning with three straight singles to load up the bases with no outs. Brandon Guyer hit a sac fly to left field scoring Tim Beckham. Mark Buehrle got a ground ball for a 5-4-3 double play. Buerhle was able to get out of the jam while surrendering only a single run. Still, it gave the Rays a 3-0 lead.

In the 5th inning Dalton Pompey was able to get a one out double to right. That hit snapped Chris Archers 11 straight batters retired.

In the bottom of the 5th inning Evan Longoria once again hit the ball hard with a double to left field. However, he was thrown out at 2nd base after Pompey played the ball perfectly off the wall and threw a strike to Devon Travis.

The story of the game continues. The Rays lead off the bottom of the 6th with 3 straight singles to load up the bases with no outs. Mark Buehrle was able to induce a ground ball and got a nice 5-2-3 double play. Brandon Guyer was able to hit a big single for the Rays scoring 2 more runs which extended the lead to 5-0.

Mercifully the Rays went to their bullpen for the 8th inning. Chris Archer went 7 strong innings giving up only 2 hits. He continued his streak of scoreless innings pushing it to 26.2 innings.

The Blue Jays finally broke the shutout in the 9th inning. Russell Martin was able to score on an RBI single by Justin Smoak.

Game Notes:

• Chris Archer was on point all day. Limiting the Blue Jays offense to only 2 hits. His fastball and slider baffled the Blue Jays and was able to notch 7 strike outs.
• Devon Travis had his hit streak come to an end after going 0-4 at the plate.
• Ryan Goins and Josh Donaldson were able to get a single each.
• Dalton Pompey had the only extra base hit of the game.
• Justin Smoak drove in the only run for the Blue Jays on a 9th inning single to break up the shutout.
• Mark Buehrle had a rough line today going 5.2 innings giving up 5 ER on 13 hits.

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