Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays bats during the first inning of a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Sept. 22, in St Petersburg, Fla.Mark Taylor/Getty Images
Jonathan Aranda homered in a third straight game and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep.
Aranda gave the Rays a 2-1 lead on his two-run drive against Zach Pop in the sixth inning. He has connected for six of his 10 career homers against the Blue Jays.
“Very well-rounded weekend for me personally and the team as well,” Aranda said through an interpreter.
Pinch-hitter Christopher Morel had an seventh-inning sacrifice fly off Génesis Cabrera (3-3) before Brandon Lowe’s solo homer in the eighth made it 4-2. Lowe has 20 homers this season.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got the Blue Jays within 4-3 with a single for his third hit of the game in the ninth off Edwin Uceta, who recovered to get his fourth save.
Guerrero had consecutive three-hit games, has a major league-leading 21 of them this season and is hitting .327. His RBI gave him 100 on the year to go with 30 homers.
“What else can I say about Vlad?” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “Thirty and 100. I think it’s great. It’s a great personal kind of accomplishment.”
Schneider was ejected in the seventh for arguing balls and strikes.
The Rays have won four in a row to get back to .500 at 78-78. It’s their longest winning streak since a four-game run since May 15-18.
The announced crowd was 20,567, giving the Rays a home season total of 1,337,739. Tampa Bay started the day averaging 16,465, which was the third-lowest in the majors, ahead of Miami and Oakland. The Rays drew 1,440,301 in 2023.
Ernie Clement’s seventh-inning run-scoring single off Kevin Kelly (5-2) tied it at 2. Leo Jiménez put the Blue Jays up 1-0 on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Shane Baz in the fourth.
Baz gave up one run and four hits over six innings. His team-record streak of five consecutive starts of five or more innings and allowing three hits or fewer ended.
Ryan Yarbrough followed Blue Jays opener Ryan Burr in the second and allowed one run and two hits in four innings in his first outing against his former team.
Lowe was selected as the winner of the 2024 Don Zimmer Award Most Valuable Player Award by the Tampa Bay chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
The Rays hold a US$10.5-million team option on Lowe for 2025.
“My family’s here,” Lowe said. “We’re comfortable being here everyday. We love the staff, love the people that are here. If we’re back, great, and if not find a way to be comfortable there, I guess.”
Up next for the Blue Jays, right-hander Chris Bassitt (10-13, 4.16 ERA) will face Boston right-hander Tanner Houck (8-10, 3.21 ERA) on Monday night in the first of a three-game set in Toronto. After that, the Miami Marlins are in Toronto to close out the season with three games.
White Sox lose 120th game to tie post-1900 record
SAN DIEGO – The Chicago White Sox tied the post-1900 MLB record of 120 losses by the 1962 expansion New York Mets on Sunday when the San Diego Padres won 4-2 by rallying for three runs in the eighth inning, capped by Fernando Tatis Jr.’s towering home run. The White Sox (36-120) had taken a 2-1 lead on home runs by Korey Lee and Miguel Vargas off Yu Darvish, but that lead quickly disappeared in the eighth. This defeat came a day after the White Sox tied the American League record of 119 losses set by the 2003 Detroit Tigers. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders hold the major league record for losses at 20-134. The Padres (90-66) clinched their first 90-win season since 2010, when they finished 90-72 but missed the postseason thanks to a brutal September collapse. The Padres reduced their clinching number to one for reaching their third postseason berth since 2020.