Toronto Blue Jays shutout Tampa Bay Rays 3-0 – MLB news
Toronto Blue Jays posted another brilliant performance as they shutout the Tampa Bay Rays 3-0 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Wednesday, June 26 in the finale of their three match series of the 2013 Major League Baseball regular season.
With their win, the Blue Jays improved their record to 39-38 to stay in the American League East Division title race. A lot credit should be given to the Blue Jays for rising from the ashes. After making a poor start to the season, John Gibbons and company
has showed excellent fighting spirit and determination to turn things around. It will be interesting to see if the Blue Jays can continue the good work to have any chance of replacing the inform Boston Red Sox at the top of AL East standings table.
Starting pitcher RA Dickey pitched his first complete game of the season as he allowed just two hits in nine outstanding innings to lay the foundations of an impressive win for his team. Striking out batters at regular intervals, he ensured the Blue Jays
had complete control of the situation. With his win, Dickey improved his record to 7-8.
“I just concentrate on trying to produce a good knuckleball down in the strike zone for a strike, and today I was able to do that,” Dickey said. “Mechanically, I was very repeatable, and you saw the results. They were hitting a lot of ground balls, I had
a high strike percentage, so that's what I'm looking for.”
“Tremendous,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “You could tell early on he had it going. That ball was dancing. Big break. We played a nice ballgame and as good a game as you can pitch, I guess, unless it's perfect.”
For the Rays, starter Felix Hernandez also had a great time on the mound but he was outpitched by his counterpart from Toronto. Overall, Hernandez gave up three runs on six hits to take his ninth loss of the year.
Melky Cabrera singled to centre in the fourth inning to break the deadlock. Edwin Encarnacion smacked a solo home run to left in the ninth to ensure the Blue Jays reached home safely.
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