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The Toronto Blue Jays will aim to go above .500 for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks on Thursday afternoon in their rubber match of a three-game series with the visiting Tampa Bay Rays.

The Blue Jays, who were 12-11 on April 21, squared their three-game series against the Rays at one win apiece with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday night. Toronto is 21-21 for the season.

The difference in Wednesday’s game was a three-run homer with two outs in the sixth inning by Alejandro Kirk against Ryan Pepiot.

The Rays, meanwhile, are trying to get to .500 and use that as a starting point for better things. The loss dropped them to 19-23, however.

“It feels like we have been chasing ourselves to get to .500,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said before the opening game of the series on Tuesday. “Certainly myself, or anybody else in that room, feels that we should not settle up being a .500 club, but our first step is probably to get there.”

The Blue Jays are scheduled to start right-hander Kevin Gausman (3-3, 3.97 ERA) on Thursday. In 23 career games (21 starts), he is 8-8 with a 3.76 ERA versus the Rays.

Tampa Bay is expected to counter with right-hander Zack Littell (2-5, 4.40). He is 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA in four career games against the Blue Jays. In his two starts against them, he has not allowed an earned run in 11 2/3 innings.

Both teams will try to win their second consecutive series.

After the Rays’ wild 11-9 victory on Tuesday, the teams played it tight on Wednesday.

Pepiot was frustrated about his costly sixth inning on Wednesday. He walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after going ahead 0-2 in the count. Daulton Varsho singled with two outs, and Kirk hit a poorly located 0-2 fastball to right-center field for the home run. The pitch was in the middle of the plate, up slightly but not as elevated as Pepiot wanted it.

“He just didn’t get it up high enough,” Cash said. “Looked like it caught a lot of plate and probably more down the middle than what he was looking to do in an 0-2 count. He threw a heck of a ballgame. The at-bat to have back is probably Vladdy’s, the leadoff walk right there. And then the pitch to have back is the pitch to Kirk.”

Pepiot said: “Get Kirk 0-2, threw the ball right in the middle, and that is what’s going to happen. One mistake, that’s the name of the game.”

Kirk said he thinks the Blue Jays — who have won five of their past six games — have a better vibe this season than last year, when they were last in the American League East.

“It has nothing to do with talent … but with the way we’re playing,” Kirk said. “And our chemistry, not just in the clubhouse, but in the dugout during the game. We are together regardless of the situation or the score.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider said the team is a “really close-knit group” that has been able to hang together regardless of how the game is going, and that has enabled Toronto to rally in key spots.

“When you do it, you feel more confident that you can,” he said. “It is a feeling that guys have.”

–Field Level Media

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