Walls 2 doubles in debut, Rays beat Jays for 9th win in row

DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) — Taylor Walls hit a pair of doubles in his major league debut and the Tampa Bay Rays won their ninth straight game, 3-1 over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night.

Manuel Margot hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning and Mike Zunino homered for the Rays. Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier left in the fifth inning with left eye irritation.

Walls is a 24-year-old shortstop who had never played above Double-A until this season. He was called up from the minors after shortstop Willy Adames was traded to Milwaukee on Friday.

“The past 12 hours has felt like five days,” Walls said before the game. “The events, they’re happening so fast. There’s no way all this could happen in just 12 hours.”

Walls doubled in the ninth and later scored on a wild pitch and an errant throw to third by catcher Danny Jansen.

“He played great defense, make some nice plays and came up with big hits,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said.

Cash is unsure of Kiermaier’s status for Sunday.

“I think he’s going to be fine,” Cash said. “He’s got a scratch in his eye that he kind of was batting through. He didn’t want to come out of the game. It just didn’t make the most sense at that point when he said he was having to blink a lot.”

After scoring 72 runs during the first eight wins, Tampa Bay generated just enough offense. Five Rays combined on a six-hitter to send Toronto to its fourth straight loss.

“This game has got a lot of ups and down,” Margot said through a translator. “So we have to stay kind of even keel to maintain that positive energy and keep that motivation going game in and game out.”

Rays starter Shane McClanahan allowed one run and four hits in five innings. Andrew Kittredge (4-0) threw a scoreless seventh and Diego...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Walls-2-doubles-in-debut-Rays-beat-Jays-for-9th-16196927.php