Ernie Clement scored twice and drove in two runs while rookie starter Trey Yesavage threw five shutout innings as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 on Saturday afternoon.
Alejandro Kirk added a solo homer as the Blue Jays trimmed their magic number to win the American League East Division title to one.
A Toronto victory over the Rays in Sunday’s regular-season finale or a New York loss to Baltimore would give the Blue Jays their first East crown since 2015.
The Blue Jays remained tied with the Yankees for first place, but Toronto has the tiebreaker thanks to a better head-to-head record. New York defeated the Baltimore Orioles 6-1 earlier Saturday.
The division winner will get a bye to the division series while the second-place finisher will play in the wild-card round.
Clement put a charge into the sellout crowd of 42,624 in the second inning when he doubled off Joe Boyle (1-4) to score Addison Barger and Davis Schneider. Clement later came around on a single by Andres Gimenez.
Clement scored again in the fifth inning on a single by Nathan Lukes. Kirk went deep in the seventh for his 13th homer of the year.
Captain’s ROCKET 🚀 <a href=”https://t.co/zL6KYlL1lh”>pic.twitter.com/zL6KYlL1lh</a>
Yesavage (1-0), who struck out five and walked two, survived a bases-loaded jam in the third inning by fanning Jonathan Aranda. He allowed five hits in his first career start at Rogers Centre and third big-league start overall.
Aranda hit a solo homer off reliever Yariel Rodriguez in the sixth. The Blue Jays have won three games in a row and 11 of their last 18.
Tampa Bay (77-84) fell seven games below the .500 mark for the first time since April 20, 2018.
Blue Jays: Toronto continued its strong play at Rogers Centre this season, improving to an American League-best 53-27 at home. The Blue Jays’ best-ever home win total of 54 was set in 1985.
Rays: By dropping the middle game of the three-game set, Tampa Bay has gone winless (0-6-1) in its last seven series. That hasn’t happened to the Rays since an 0-6-2 series stretch to end the 2006 season.
After catching a Bob Seymour lineout in the fifth inning, Lukes fired a strike from right field to get Chandler Simpson at third base. Simpson overslid the bag and Barger applied the tag.
It was Toronto’s first series win over Tampa Bay since taking a three-game set at Tropicana Field in September 2023.
Kevin Gausman (10-11, 3.47 earned-run average) was tabbed to start for Toronto against left-hander Ian Seymour (4-2, 2.85).
