Struggling Blue Jays look to salvage series vs. Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays will go for a four-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays Thursday afternoon that also would give them a split on their eight-game road trip.

The Rays, who opened the trip with four losses to the surging Boston Red Sox, won their third in a row against the Blue Jays with a 4-2 decision on Wednesday.

The game turned on three unearned runs in the sixth inning started by center fielder Daulton Varsho's error on a flyball by Yandy Diaz that bounced off the heel of his glove.

The Rays are 8-1 this season against the Blue Jays, who fell 10 games below .500. Toronto sits last in the American Leagie East, 13 1/2 games behind the first-place Rays and 6 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot.

The Blue Jays have made six errors in the series, but their lack of hitting continues to be a problem and falls far short of making up for the sloppy play in the field. The Blue Jays have scored 10 runs in going 1-5 in the first six contests of their seven-game homestand.

"We talk about it every day," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. "We talk about it a lot. We talked about it today, at length, with the guys. It's tough. It's tough because we're better and they're better than what's going on right now on the field."

Left-hander Ian Seymour (6-2, 4.79 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Rays. He is 2-1 with a 5.02 ERA in six career appearances (two starts) against Toronto He has four relief appearances versus the Blue Jays this season with a 4.50 ERA.

Toronto will turn to right-hander Shane Bieber (1-1, 5.70), who is 3-2 with a 3.27 ERA in seven career starts against the Rays.

Victor Mesa Jr. had two RBI singles for the Rays on Wednesday and the speedy Chandler Simpson was again prominent going 1-for-2 with a single, a walk, a sacrifice fly and two stolen bases.

Simpson was 4-for-5 with an RBI on Tuesday in Tampa Bay's 12-2 win.

"When Chandler's going, the havoc he's creating -- he got two hits (Tuesday) night, traditional hits, and then two hits with a routine ground ball to short and a tweener -- not many guys in baseball can get hits like that, but he can," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "We've watched it all season long. He creates, like, a panic on defensive players, and really good ones. ... Chandler hits it on the ground, and everybody's having to move a lot faster than what they usually do."

Players like Simpson provide some needed support to the lineup of Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero.

"It's very key," Simpson said. "The big three, as you'd call it, they're amazing and they've been superheroes the whole time. So if 5-9 can just help out a little bit and get them up to the plate as much as possible, it would be good for us."

"I think that's the biggest key of all," Cash said. "Good offenses, they're able to turn the lineup over."

The Blue Jays recalled outfielder Yohendrick Pinango from Triple-A Buffalo and put Jonatan Clase on the injured list with left plantar fasciitis. Pinango started in left field Wednesday and was 1-for-2 before being replaced for a pinch hitter.

They also recalled right-hander CJ Van Eyk from Buffalo and optioned Lazaro Estrada to Triple-A.

--Field Level Media