Toronto’s Justin Turner went 3-for-4 and drove in four runs in his biggest day with the Blue Jays as they clobbered the Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 Sunday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The third baseman singled, doubled and homered in the first five innings. He also scored twice and walked.
Davis Schneider homered and had two RBIs, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run as Toronto won the opener and finale in the four-game series.
Starting pitcher Kevin Gausman made his season debut with 4 1/3 innings of two-hit ball. He allowed one run.
Behind as the season opened due to shoulder soreness in Spring Training, the hard-throwing right-hander fanned six without a walk over 69 pitches.
Reliever Mitch White (1-0) tossed three hitless, scoreless innings.
Shortstop Bo Bichette (neck spasms) was a late scratch.
Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena hit an opposite-field home run for the second consecutive game, and Isaac Paredes went deep as the club managed just three hits.
Left-hander Tyler Alexander, who followed opener Shawn Armstrong, surrendered five runs on six hits — two homers — with four strikeouts and two walks in five innings.
After splitting a pair of 8-2 outcomes on Thursday and Friday and the Rays winning 5-1 Saturday, Toronto jumped on Armstrong for two runs as the right-hander allowed four of the game’s first five batters to reach base.
Turner and Alejandro Kirk provided RBI singles, but Armstrong got out of a first-and-third jam with a double-play grounder to shortstop Jose Caballero.
On a 3-1 fastball from Gausman, Arozarena answered with a 384-foot homer to right-center to halve the lead.
Turner did more damage in the second, plating a pair with a two-out, two-run double off the left field wall after Toronto loaded the bases after the first two outs.
Up again leading off the fifth, Turner slugged Alexander’s 0-2 fastball 400 feet to left-center for his first deep shot and a 5-1 lead.
Four batters later, Schneider lashed a two-run homer to left, also his first, as the lead grew to six.
A throwing error by Caballero and Cavan Biggio’s single made it 9-1 in a two-run seventh.
Paredes homered to left, his first, off Chad Green with two outs in the ninth.
–Field Level Media
