Hot Rays cruise to victory, go 11 games over .500

TORONTO -- Tampa Bay continued to make the game of baseball look easy on Monday night with a 7-1 win over Toronto at Rogers Centre.
The Rays (74-63) moved their winning streak to three while improving to 12-2 in their last 14 games. Tampa Bay has not been 11 games over .500 since finishing the 2013 season at 92-71.
"It's awesome," said Kevin Kiermaier about being 11 games over .500. "Kind of evaluating how we've been the last couple of years, I feel like we've underperformed. And I think that's very safe to say. We've had a lot of talent on our teams, it's just we didn't win like we wanted to.

"Any team can say this. We should have won a lot more games where we're at right now, but baseball doesn't work like that. We're happy where we are. We're not content by any means. We have a long way to go. But the way we're going right now, it's just a lot of fun to be a part of. The positivity. Everything we have going on in this clubhouse is contagious."
Oakland won on Monday, which maintained its eight-game lead over Tampa Bay for the American League's second Wild Card spot.
Like most of the Rays' wins, they had a cast of heroes leading the way, but none were more outstanding than Yonny Chirinos.

Ryne Stanek started for the Rays, marking the 41st time the team has used an "opener" and the 23rd time they used Stanek in the role. Chirinos started the second and proceeded to hold the Blue Jays to one run on four hits and three walks while striking out five in seven innings to improve to 3-5 on the season.
"Every time I get on the mound I have the same objective of helping the team win and doing my job, which is pitching six, seven innings. In the first inning I pitched, I was just moving a little too quickly," Chirinos said. "I was getting tired, I got tired. But thankfully, I was able to get out of it. In the next couple of innings, I was breathing better and just attacking the hitters."
For Chirinos, the outing was his sixth consecutive relief appearance of at least five innings.
"Yeah, for me it was definitely one of the best outings I've had here," Chirinos said. "Hopefully, this is the start of a good month for me."
On offense, the Rays had 11 hits. Matt Duffy drove home two, while Mallex Smith, Tommy Pham and Kiermaier each chipped in with an RBI.

Ji-Man Choi finished the Rays' scoring with his sixth home run of the season, a solo shot in the seventh off former Rays farmhand Taylor Guerrieri.

"The offense ... we've really pieced it together and we've had a lot of people every night provide big boosts for us," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "We're seeing a lot of confidence with some guys."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Tampa Bay led 2-0 in the second when Duffy stepped into the box to face Marcus Stroman. After taking ball one, Duffy hit a 90.5 mph two-seamer into left-center field, driving home Smith and Nick Ciuffo to put the Rays up 4-0.

WENDLE RAKING
Joey Wendle had two singles and a double in four at-bats, for his sixth three-hit game of the season. He's had seven multihit performances in his last eight games and is hitting .457 over that stretch.
HE SAID IT
"It's just a joy to be a part of and we're just going to try and keep this thing rolling as long as we can and see what happens." -- Kiermaier on how the Rays are going
UP NEXT
Stanek will start Tuesday night when the Rays face the Blue Jays in a 7:07 p.m. ET contest at Rogers Centre. Stanek will serve as the "opener" for the second consecutive night after pitching one inning Monday night against the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays have named Ryan Borucki (3-3, 4.52) as their starter.