TORONTO — The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 at Rogers Centre on Wednesday night, sealing the club’s first four-game series win since May 13-16, 2024, and snapping the second-longest streak of winless four-game series — 15 straight — in franchise history.
The victory was powered not by Tampa Bay’s top-of-the-order stars Yandy Díaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero, but by the hitters behind them. This month, the Rays’ No. 5-9 hitters lead the Majors in batting average (.300) and slugging percentage (.479), and they lead the American League in on-base percentage (.343).
“I think that’s the biggest key of all,” manager Kevin Cash said Wednesday afternoon. “Good offenses, they’re able to turn the lineup over.”
Left fielder Chandler Simpson has been the engine of the bottom-order surge. He is batting .400 (24-for-60) with seven steals this month and contributed a walk, two stolen bases and a sacrifice fly in Wednesday’s win. “The ‘Big Three,’ as you’d call it — I mean, they’re amazing and they’ve been superheroes the whole time,” Simpson said. “If five to nine can just help out a little bit and get them up to the plate as much as possible, it would be good for us.”
Outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. drove in runs with two singles and offered his own assessment of Simpson’s July tear. “Mr. July! Chandler is Mr. July,” Mesa said, smiling. “He’s so hot.” Mesa added that the bottom of the lineup has an obligation to produce. “It feels good. They cannot do it all the time, so I feel like as a team, we’ve got to help them,” he said. “We’ve got to have this half also contribute, and I think that we’re doing it.”
The Rays didn’t match their 12-run, 21-hit outburst from Tuesday’s victory, but they manufactured runs through contact and discipline. In the sixth inning, Simpson lined a sacrifice fly to score Díaz, Mesa followed with an RBI single, Taylor Walls — playing through soreness in the third and fourth fingers on his left hand — loaded the bases with a bunt, and pinch-hitter Ben Williamson worked a run-scoring walk against lefty Mason Fluharty. “Some big hits. We had some good at-bats,” Cash said. “Ben, to come off the bench right there and be selective enough not to try to overdo anything was big. Happy with the way that we put together some at-bats.”
Right-hander Griffin Jax earned the win with a strong bounce-back outing after a rough second-half debut in Boston, holding Toronto to one run on three hits and one walk while striking out five over six innings — matching his longest start since moving into the Rays’ rotation. Jax leaned heavily on his changeup, throwing it roughly one-third of the time and finishing all five strikeouts with the pitch. The Blue Jays whiffed on nine of 17 swings against it and managed just one hit. “That pitch was really good today,” Jax said. “It’s always going to be a big part of my game.”
The Rays’ offensive surge comes at a notable time, with the club expected to pursue additional bats before the Trade Deadline to lengthen its lineup.