The Tampa Bay Rays will miss the playoffs, but they can still influence the American League East race when they visit the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.
The Rays (77-82) will try to avoid having to watch a celebration as they conclude their season with a three-game series against a team attempting to clinch the division title.
“I’m excited for it, and I feel like I’ve done it for a long time,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash, who feels the series will be valuable experience for his young players.
“They’re going to be excited, and it’s going to be loud. The whole country of Canada is going to be behind them, rightfully so. The Toronto Blue Jays have had a tremendous season.”
The Blue Jays (91-68) are tied for first place in the AL East with the New York Yankees but hold the tiebreaker.
Toronto had seen a five-game lead evaporate by losing six of seven before salvaging the finale of a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox with a 6-1 victory on Thursday.
“A lot of people didn’t pick us to win the division,” said Daulton Varsho, whose grand slam in the sixth inning broke open a scoreless game on Thursday.
“We exceeded everybody’s standards and now everybody’s holding us to that, saying we’ve got to win the division. Well, we have house money and let’s just keep going.”
Toronto manager John Schneider hopes the slam marks a turnaround for the team’s struggling hitters.
“It’s kind of like popping a balloon,” he said. “We’ve been going through it. … Sometimes it takes a swing like that.”
The Rays, who are coming off a 6-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, split four games with the Blue Jays last week in Tampa.
The Blue Jays are scheduled to start right-hander Shane Bieber (3-2, 3.57 ERA) on Friday. He was to start on Thursday, but it was decided to give him an extra day between starts.
Bieber is 2-2 with a 3.22 in six career starts against the Rays. He has not faced them since 2022.
The Rays are expected to counter with right-hander Adrian Houser (8-4, 3.18).
Houser is 1-2 with a 5:32 ERA in four career games versus the Blue Jays, although he is 1-0 with a 2.03 ERA in two starts against them this season.
A first-round bye could be important for the Blue Jays.
It would give more time for shortstop Bo Bichette (sprained knee) and right-handers Chris Bassitt (back) and Jose Berrios (elbow) who are on the injured list.
Berrios, who pitched in relief on Wednesday, was placed on the injured list on Thursday with inflammation in his right elbow. Right-hander Paxton Schultz was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo.
It is the first stint on the IL in his 10-year career for Berrios and Schneider said that he has been dealing with the issue “for a while.”
Last week, the struggling Berrios was removed from the starting rotation and put in the bullpen.
The Rays will be trying to avoid dropping to last place in the AL East. They are two games ahead of the fifth-place Orioles.
“We want to go in there and do right and play good baseball and see where it goes,” said Cash, a former Blue Jays catcher. “But embrace that atmosphere as much as possible. Because when you’re in those types of atmospheres, that means you’re playing for something.”
–Field Level Media
