Blue Jays finally overcomes Tampa Bay, but Tropicana Field still got its shots in

The Toronto Blue Jays did exactly what they needed to do at Tropicana Field. They beat the Tampa Bay Rays on their home turf, taking the series 2-1 after winning 10-5 on Tuesday and 5-1 on Thursday, dropping the middle game 7-6. It's the first time since Sept. 22-24, 2023, that they've won a series at the Trop, and it also kept their run of series victories alive at seven in a row.

The Blue Jays are continuing to rebuild a season that looked headed in the wrong direction less than a month ago. Since losing a series to the Red Sox on July 26 — a defeat that seemed to cement their status as deadline sellers — the Blue Jays have gone 15-8, the best record in the American League over that span. Taking two out of three from the Rays, was the kind of result Toronto needed before heading into another massive series against the New York Yankees.

Sure, it would have been easy to focus on the one that got away. Wednesday’s 7-6 loss was there to be won, and in a building that has haunted them for years, the Blue Jays had a real chance to leave Tampa Bay with a sweep. But given the opponent, the venue and the standings pressure, this was still a series Toronto had to feel good about.

The Blue Jays got a little bit of everything. Kazuma Okamoto continued building one of the most unexpected rookie seasons in franchise history, launching his 25th home run of the season in Tuesday’s opener to pass Eric Hinske for the Blue Jays’ rookie home run record. He added another homer in the finale, giving him 26 on the year. He's been streaky and his valleys have been hard to watch, but when he's at his best his power has become one of the defining pieces of Toronto’s offence.

Alejandro Kirk stayed hot, too, collecting six hits in the series without striking out while driving in six runs, scoring three times and homering twice.

Then there was Nathan Lukes, who may have made Toronto’s defensive play of the year with a leaping catch at the wall to rob Cedric Mullins in the seventh inning of the finale. Lukes also homered off a left-handed pitcher for the first time in his major-league career, snapping a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning of Thursday’s win.

Daz Cameron followed with his own statement, crushing his first home run as a Blue Jay — a 442-foot blast that struck the catwalk and offered a glimpse of why Toronto may want to keep giving him chances. The Blue Jays have needed a right-handed hitting outfielder with some thump all season, and Cameron suddenly looks like a player worth watching.

Most encouraging of all might have been Shane Bieber. The right-hander delivered seven innings of one-run ball in the finale, allowing four hits, walking none and striking out seven while throwing 101 pitches. It was the first time he had crossed the 100-pitch mark since undergoing Tommy John surgery, and since the trade deadline, he now owns a 3-0 record with a 2.96 ERA across 24.1 innings.

Tropicana Field still took something from the Blue Jays before they left

As good as the series win was, the Blue Jays still didn’t escape Tampa Bay untouched. Brett Bateman exited Wednesday’s game with a hamstring issue, though manager John Schneider said the MRI “didn’t show anything structurally bad” and that he isn’t expected to miss much time. Andrés Giménez then left Thursday’s game with right hamstring tightness, another scare for a team that has already absorbed more than its share of injury anxiety.

And, of course, there was the most Tropicana Field sequence imaginable: Jesús Sánchez losing a first-inning fly ball after it passed near a catwalk, then having another ball disappear in the lights during the fourth inning of Wednesday’s loss. Sánchez owned the mistakes afterward, saying he needs to improve defensively in left field and that the second ball was one he needed to catch.

That’s the catch with winning at Tropicana Field. Even when the Blue Jays finally leave with the series, the building still finds a way to make itself part of the story. Toronto earned a significant result against one of the American League’s best teams, but the injuries, the missed chances and the defensive weirdness made sure the trip still came with a cost.

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