TORONTO - J.P. Arencibia hit a two-run homer to snap a 1-1 tie in the seventh and Ricky Romero allowed three hits over seven innings as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 on Thursday.
Juan Rivera also homered to help the Blue Jays (22-21) earn a split in the two-game series with the Rays (25-19) who had home runs by B.J. Upton and Kelly Shoppach.
Frank Francisco pitched the ninth for his fifth save of the season.
Arencibia followed Rivera's walk with his seventh homer of the season, a drive to centre on a first-pitch changeup to put the Blue Jays into a 3-1 lead with one out in the seventh.
Wade Davis (4-4) followed the home run by walking Eric Thames and Rajai Davis but struck out Jayson Nix and retired Yunel Escobar on a grounder to short. Davis allowed seven hits and three runs in 7 2/3 innings.
Romero (4-4), who allowed one run, three hits and two walks while striking out six was replaced by left-hander Marc Rzepczynski in the eighth. He gave up Shoppach's second homer of the season on a 2-1 sinker that cleared the fence in right and cut the lead to 3-2.
Rivera, making his first start of the season at first base, hit his third homer of the year on a 3-1 fastball with one out in the second. The ball skipped off the top of the left-field fence and over.
Upton tied the game with one out in the fifth when he hit his seventh homer of the season to left-centre field on a 1-0 fastball.
It was only the second fly ball of the game Romero had allowed to that stage. He had faced the minimum 13 batters until then. A second-inning single on a grounder had been erased on a double play grounder.
Romero gave up his first walk of the game with two out in the fifth but caught Reid Brignac looking at a third strike.
The Blue Jays had consecutive one-out singles by Arencibia and Thames in the bottom of the fifth but Davis grounded into a double play.
NOTES: Attendance at Rogers Centre was 12,590. ... Toronto left-fielder Corey Patterson singled in the sixth to extend his hit streak to 10 games. ... Right-fielder Jose Bautista was 0-for-4 to end his nine-game hit streak. ... Infielder Edwin Encarnacion who made two errors at first base in Wednesday's 6-5 loss to the Rays was not in the lineup for Thursday's series finale. He has made 10 errors, three at first base and seven at third base. ... Rivera played 13 games, 11 starts, at first for the Los Angeles Angels last season. ... First baseman Adam Lind (lower back) is at the minor-league complex in Dunedin, Fla., while on the disabled list and is about 10 days away from returning to major-league action. ... The Blue Jays open a three-game interleague series with the Houston Astros Friday at Rogers Centre with left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes (0-3, 4.75 earned-run average) going for his first win as a starter since June 13, 2008 (26 starts) scheduled to pitch against Houston's Aneury Rodriguez (0-2, 6.26 ERA).
