Rays 4, Blue Jays 3
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Evan Longoria and Logan Forsythe hit home runs, and Curt Casali came up big for the Tampa Bay Rays, who beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 on a walk-off Saturday night at Tropicana Field to even the series.
With the game tied 3-3, pinch-hitter Brad Miller opened up the bottom of the ninth inning with a single, and Kevin Kiermaier's line-drive double bounced off the right-field wall to put Miller on third with the game-winning run and no one out.
Casali then singled just over shortstop Troy Tulowitzki's glove to bring home the game-winner. It was Casali's first career walk-off hit, and the Rays' first since Oct. 3, 2015, also a 4-3 win against Toronto.
A total of four home runs were hit in the game, two for each side. But even with the power display, it was a single that put the final stamp on a game that had been back-and-forth for much of the evening.
The Blue Jays looked strong behind starter J.A. Happ early on, and took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth, when Longoria led off with a first-pitch homer to tie the game. Toronto center fielder Kevin Pillar countered with his first home run of the season, against reliever Enny Romero in the top of the seventh, to give the Blue Jays a 3-2 edge.
Forsythe answered by going deep to mark his fourth home run of the year in the bottom of the same frame to re-tie the score.
Jose Bautista also homered for the Blue Jays.
The three-game set wraps up on Sunday.
Early on was marked by an unusual pitcher's duel that saw the game tied 2-2. On one side was Rays starter Chris Archer, who on paper appeared to have worked out his early-season troubles with just one one hit allowed through his six innings.
It wasn't that black-and-white, though: The right-hander struck out four and walked four, and 48 of his 100 pitches were balls.
Still, Archer managed to escape with a no-decision.
On the other side was Happ, who entered the game with a 1.69 ERA in his last 14 starts. The lefty scattered six hits, four of them for extra bases, and left after surrendering the game-tying home run to Forsythe in the seventh.
Happ scattered six hits over his 6 2/3 innings, walked three and allowed three earned runs.
Archer continued to struggle on the mound during an outing in which he needed 34 pitches to get through two innings. He issued a one-out walk to Josh Donaldson in the third -- Archer's fourth walk of the game -- to bring up Bautista, who hit a full-count pitch just over the left-field wall for his fourth home run of the season.
The home run put Toronto up 2-0 and marked the Blue Jays' lone hit in the first five innings.
Forsythe singled up the middle with two outs in the third to score Kiermaier and cut the Rays' deficit in half, but Happ was stingy otherwise, allowing just three hits through five innings and striking out five.
NOTES: RHP Chris Archer set a team strikeouts record for April, collecting No. 42 against Josh Thole in the fifth inning to pass David Price (2014) and Drew Smyly (2016) for most strikeouts in a month. ... Rays RHP Alex Cobb threw 25 pitches in a bullpen session and reported no problems. Cobb had Tommy John elbow surgery in May 2015 and is hopeful for a late-July return. ... Rays RHP Brad Boxberger (core muscle surgery) threw a bullpen session and is scheduled for one more before he'll face live hitters. If things go as planned, Boxberger will return in late May. ... Blue Jays C Russell Martin was not in Saturday's lineup because of lingering issues with neck spasms. Martin has a team-high 31 strikeouts this season, including nine consecutive earlier in the week. ... Rays INF Tim Beckham and 1B Steve Pearce were in Saturday's lineup in an effort to jump-start the offense. "We'll see if we can get it going a little bit," manager Kevin Cash said. "It's been a little quiet here lately." Entering Saturday, the Rays scored seven runs in their past four games and had a .222 team batting average.