The Associated Press
Dick Scanlon
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.–The Tampa Bay Rays were saved by a replay reversal, plus a pair of reversals by star centre-fielder Kevin Kiermaier.
Alex Cobb and four relievers combined on a six-hitter, and Kiermaier made two spectacular catches, as the Rays blanked the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 yesteday afternoon.
Both of Kiermaier’s plays came in the fifth inning.
First, the two-time Gold Glover made an all-out sprint to catch Steve Pearce’s drive with two runners on base, tumbling onto the warning track in right-centre.
Kiermaier then rushed in a long way to make a diving grab on Justin Smoak’s shallow fly with the bases loaded and two outs.
The Rays also benefited when an apparent two-run double by Josh Donaldson was turned into a foul ball on replay.
Donaldson eventually walked and was left on first base.
“That’s why this can be a game of inches,” Kiermaier said.
“We needed every centimetre, every millimetre, possible on the Donaldson foul ball and they got the call right.”
Jays’ manager John Gibbons wasn’t quite so sure after a 98-second review determined the ball barely had missed the foul line.
“They must have better cameras up there . . . I would expect, hopefully, because that looked like it caught something,” Gibbons said.
“But that’s why they have replay.”
The only debate about Kiermaier’s catches was over which one was better.
“I heard he was a good outfielder but I couldn’t believe he caught that first ball,” said reliever Steve Cishek, who has been with the Rays less than a month.
“He found another gear.”
But Rays’ manager Kevin Cash was even more impressed by the second catch.
“The ball that he ran down in the gap, from my view I was pretty confident he was going to catch it,” Cash noted.
“The ball that Smoak hit . . . from where he was starting from, there are not many people that get to that ball and make a play on it.”
Kiermaier, for his part, chose the first one.
“The degree of difficulty was there for both of them, but I made the second one a lot more difficult than it should have been,” he said.
“I broke back on it . . . and I knew once I messed up that I had to catch it.”
A day after the same two teams combined for nine home runs in a 7-6 Toronto win, pitching and defence took over.
Cobb, making his first start in 19 days, was taken out of the game in the fifth inning after throwing 94 pitches despite giving up no runs.
Cishek (2-0) got the win while Alex Colome pitched the ninth for his 38th save.
Tom Koehler (0-1) pitched five innings in his first start for Toronto, giving up one run on five hits while striking out seven.
He was 1-5 with a 7.92 ERA when Miami traded him to the Jays last weekend.
Daniel Robertson drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly in the second.
It came after a single by Jesus Sucre and a couple of walks by Koehler.
Corey Dickerson hit his 24th home run in the eighth.
Jays’ left-hander J.A. Happ (6-9) will pitch at home against the Minnesota Twins in the opener of a three-game series tonight.
Elsewhere in the AL, Chicago beat Minnesota 5-1, Detroit topped New York 10-6, Cleveland dumped Boston 13-6, and Texas blanked L.A. 3-0.
Over in the NL, Arizona edged New York 3-2, Miami topped Philadelphia 9-8, L.A. beat Pittsburgh 5-2, Cincinnati doubled Chicago 4-2, and San Diego nipped St. Louis 4-3.
Colorado beat Kansas City 3-2 and Washington shaded Houston 5-4 (11 innings) in interleague play.
