Matz wins 4th straight start, Blue Jays beat Rays 5-3

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Steven Matz won his fourth consecutive start, Marcus Semien hit a three-run homer, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 on Friday night.

Matz (4-0), acquired from the New York Mets in January, gave up three runs and five hits over five innings. The lefty went 0-5 with a 9.68 ERA with New York last year.

“I was yanking the fastball a little bit but other than that, the stuff felt good,” Matz said.

Matz had given up three earned runs over 18 1/3 innings in his previous three starts.

Randal Grichuk also homered for Toronto. Rafael Dolis, the fourth reliever, worked the ninth for his first save.

Randy Arozarena hit a three-run homer for the Rays. Tyler Glasnow (2-1), who entered with an ERA of 0.73, allowed five runs, five hits and struck out 10 in six innings.

The Blue Jays started what manager Charlie Montoyo called a “kind of weird” three-game series at Tampa Bay, which is a short distance away from Toronto's spring training ballpark, TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Florida, where it is playing home games through at least May due to COVID-19 restrictions in Canada.

Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette struck out before the Blue Jays erupted for a four-run first inning. Rowdy Tellez hit an RBI double and Semien connected on a drive to center.

"The rhythm was all wrong," Glasnow said of the first inning. “It just didn't feel right.”

Glasnow also fanned Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who reached on a wild pitch, and Danny Jansen in the first to become the third Tampa Bay pitcher to strike out four in the same inning.

Arozarena’s homer got the Rays within 4-3 in the fifth.

Grichuk’s sixth-inning shot was the lone hit Glasnow gave up over his final five innings.

“Give Ty credit because the way things were going, we had a guy warming...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Matz-wins-4th-straight-start-Blue-Jays-beat-Rays-16125304.php