TORONTO -- In the end, the walks finally caught up to the Rays on Wednesday night.
As they won 16 of their previous 18 games, the Rays managed to mostly avoid free passes. The pitchers walked four batters or fewer in every game during that stretch, and they averaged only two per outing.
But they tied a season-high mark with 10 walks in Wednesday’s series finale, and the Blue Jays finally made them pay in the 10th inning. After right-hander Aaron Brooks walked the bases loaded in his first Major League appearance in nearly two years, Daulton Varsho launched an opposite-field grand slam to hand the Rays a frustrating, 5-3 defeat at Rogers Centre.
“Very fair [to say] too much traffic,” manager Kevin Cash said. “And generally, when you walk that many, it's tough to win.”
Still, the Rays had a chance to do exactly that. They carried a two-run lead into the bottom of the 10th thanks to RBI singles by Ben Williamson (who entered the game as a defensive replacement for Junior Caminero in the eighth) and Yandy Díaz.
Having already used five pitchers out of a heavily worked bullpen in relief of starter Griffin Jax, Cash turned to Brooks. The Rays called up the right-hander from Triple-A Durham on Saturday, completing a winding journey that led to his first big league appearance since June 24, 2024.
Brooks got Yohendrick Piñango to pop out on his first pitch, then walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on four pitches and Kazuma Okamoto on six.
“Definitely a tough spot,” Cash said. “You'd like to think [you] create a little momentum when he gets that first-pitch popup, but then they put together some good at-bats and didn't do him any favors expanding out of the zone.”
Brooks got ahead of Varsho, threw two balls to even the count, then went to back-to-back four-seam fastballs just above the strike zone. Varsho fouled off the first then swatted the second into the Jays bullpen for the fifth walk-off slam in Blue Jays history.
He lamented the decision to throw another high fastball to Varsho, thinking he could have stuck to his sinker, his usual strength, to get a ground ball or a popup. Overall, he said he felt prepared but “just out of sync,” which led to his command issues.
“Just didn’t have my best stuff out there today, and that’s part of the game,” Brooks said. “When they call your name and you’re not ready for it, something like that happens. … It’s just baseball.”
It took a lot just to send the game to extra innings. Silenced by starter Dylan Cease for six innings, the Rays got on the board in the seventh with two walks and an RBI single by Richie Palacios.
And it looked like one run might be enough, because Jax pitched five scoreless innings on 66 pitches in what he called a “grindy outing.” His performance included four walks, four hits and three timely double plays: one to end the first, another to finish the third and one more to erase a leadoff walk in the fourth.
“I know ground balls are always gonna be a big part of my game, so those definitely helped and saved me a lot,” Jax said after his first five-inning start since Oct. 2, 2021. “I've just got to clean up the walks.”
Toronto immediately threatened to erase Tampa Bay’s lead, but another double play kept it a one-run game. Ernie Clement singled with one out, then Garrett Cleavinger hit Andrés Giménez with a pitch to put two runners on. Up came pinch-hitter Lenyn Sosa, and in came right-hander Kevin Kelly.
Sosa hit a low line drive, but sure-handed shortstop Taylor Walls was there to snag it. With Clement way off second base, Walls quickly flipped the ball to Palacios and pumped his fist as Palacios caught the toss for the third out.
“It definitely kept us in the game,” Cash said of the double plays.
With their lead intact in the eighth, the Rays turned to right-hander Bryan Baker, their best high-leverage reliever to this point of the season. But he had a rare lapse of command and said he struggled to get a grip on some particularly “slick” baseballs, walking as many batters in one outing (four) as he had in his first 18 combined.
After the first three, the Jays capitalized with a game-tying sacrifice fly.
“One of those days, is the best way I can put it, I think. Nothing felt right,” Baker said. “Just one of those days where mistakes compounded and it was hard to get back in the zone, then they took some really good at-bats as well.”