St. Petersburg, FL - Carl Crawford scored the tying run with two outs in the ninth to force extra innings and then homered in the 11th inning, lifting the Tampa Bay Devil Rays over the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4, at Tropicana Field.
Crawford, who came on as a pinch-runner for Jonny Gomes in the ninth, ended the game and capped the comeback by homering over the wall in left-center on a 3-2 pitch from Brain Wolfe (2-1). Crawford didn’t start the game because of an injured wrist and was in obvious pain earlier in the at-bat after swinging and missing.
Gomes and B.J. Upton also homered for the Devil Rays, who rallied from a two- run deficit to win consecutive games after losing eight straight
Alex Rios had two hits, drove in a run and scored twice for the Blue Jays, who have lost three of four on their current six-game road trip. Troy Glaus and Vernon Wells drove in a run each for Toronto, which began to run into trouble in the late innings.
Trailing by two runs, Upton started the rally in the eighth by hitting a solo homer off reliever Casey Janssen. Then, in the ninth, Gomes walked against closer Jeremy Accardo and Crawford came on to steal second. Crawford then moved to third on Greg Norton’s fly out to right and scored when pinch- hitter Josh Wilson singled.
In the 10th, Tampa Bay closer Al Reyes left the go-ahead run at third, striking out Glaus and getting Wells to fly out to end in the inning. Then, in the bottom half, Brendan Harris was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on Delmon Young’s base hit up the middle. Shortstop John McDonald knocked down the grounder and then gunned down Harris.
Tampa Bay reliever Scott Dohmann (1-0) got the win. He pitched himself out of a bases-loaded jam on the top of the 11th, striking out Reed Johnson and getting Lyle Overbay to fly out to end the frame.
Toronto starter Dustin McGowan allowed just two runs on four hits, walking three and striking out four, in six innings. The right-hander had won consecutive starts and was 7-3 over his last 10 decisions.
Tampa Bay starter Andy Sonnanstine avoided his seventh setback in as many decisions. The right-hander yielded four runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out three and walking three. He hasn’t won since June 10.
Toronto started the scoring in the first inning. Overbay walked with one out and scored when Rios followed with a triple. Rios then scored when Glaus singled, ending an 0-for-13 slide.
McGowan had his scoreless innings streak halted at 15 in the third inning when Ben Zobrist scored on a wild pitch to make it a 2-1 game. Zobrist singled with two outs and moved to third on Akinori Iwamura’s double that followed.
The Blue Jays regained the two-run lead in the fourth when Rios scored on a Wells sacrifice fly.
Gomes homered in the fifth to again make it a one-run game and the Devil Rays threatened in the sixth only to come up empty. After Young walked to load the bases with two outs, McGowan got out of trouble when he struck out Gomes looking.
Toronto added an insurance run in the seventh. With two outs, Gregg Zaun walked and McDonald singled, forcing Sonnanstine from the game in favor of the newly acquired Dan Wheeler. Johnson greeted Wheeler with an RBI single. However, after Overbay walked to load the bases, Wheeler got Rios to fly out to end the inning.
Game Notes
Prior to the game the Devil Rays activated pitcher Wheeler to the 25-man roster. The right-handed reliever was acquired from the Houston Astros on Saturday in exchange for IF/OF Ty Wigginton. He allowed one hit and one walk in 1 1/3 innings…To make room for Wheeler, the Devil Rays sent Jae Kuk Ryu to Triple-A Durham…Tampa Bay’s Akinori Iwamura has a six-game hit streak…Gomes has 11 HRs this season…Upton has 14 HRs this year…Toronto manager John Gibbons was ejected by third base umpire Tim Welke in the eighth inning for arguing a check swing by Iwamura. After being tossed, Gibbons jumped the dugout railing to have an animated argument with Welke.
