Rays Beat Jays In Wild Card Game; Play Again Today

Tonight is game two of the Wild Card Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rays walked away with a 3-1 victory yesterday against the Blue Jays after going 40-20 in the regular season.

Yesterday’s Game Recap

Blake Snell was  the starting pitcher in yesterday’s game for the Rays. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and became the first Ray’s pitcher to have a no-hitter through five innings in Rays’ postseason history. Prior to the game Snell admitted that this was the leadership role that he wanted going into the postseason.

Before heading into the game, center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, said that the Rays’ pitching is what he thinks sets their team apart from others.

The first run of the game went to the Rays in the bottom of the fourth. Robbie Ray walked Willy Adames and Randy Arozarena scored.

The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the seventh. Manuel Margot had a two-run homer against A.J. Cole with a line drive to left field that brought Joey Wendle home as well.

In the top of the eighth, Bo Bichette had a sacrifice fly off of Rays pitcher Nick Anderson that scored Rowdy Tellez  to give the Jays their only run of the game.

This Year’s Wild Cards Series

Due to the effects of COVID-19 on athletics, the MLB has made some adjustments to the traditional postseason style. As opposed to years past, this is the first time that more than half of the teams qualified for playoffs. 16 of the 30 teams made the playoffs, taking the top two teams from the three divisions in each league. In addition, the two teams with the next best records from each league also joined. Instead of a singular knock-out Wild Card game, this year’s Wild Cards play best-of-three series.

Everything after round one will remain the same. First, a best-of-five division series. Then, two best-of-seven League Championship Series. Finally, the best-of-seven World Series.

Game Two

The Rays and the Blue Jays face off Wednesday at 4:07pm at Tropicana Field. This game has the potential of landing the Rays a seat in round two of the playoffs. If the Blue Jays take it to game three, however, they will play again tomorrow to determine who will move forward in their postseason.

We turn to our Ace tomorrow.

RECAP: https://t.co/dsnyBvGSxB pic.twitter.com/uZI1g0hnGv

— Toronto Blue Jays – x (@BlueJays) September 30, 2020