TORONTO

Meadows, Lowe homer twice, Rays quell late comeback to down Jays

Melissa Couto The Canadian Press
Published Friday, April 12, 2019 11:23PM EDT Last Updated Friday, April 12, 2019 11:25PM EDT

Tampa Bay Rays' Austin Meadows doubles in the ninth inning as Toronto Blue Jays' Freddy Galvis misses the tag during American League MLB baseball game in Toronto Friday April 12, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill

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TORONTO - Austin Meadows and Brandon Lowe both homered twice, Willy Adames added some insurance with a two-run shot in the ninth, and the American League East-leading Tampa Bay Rays fended off a late Toronto comeback for an 11-7 win over the Blue Jays on Friday.

Mike Zunino, Kevin Kiermaier and Tommy Pham also drove in runs as Tampa (11-3) extended its win streak to five games.

Down 8-0, the Blue Jays (4-10) erupted with six runs in the bottom of the seventh to turn a rout into a close game.

Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit back-to-back run-scoring doubles, Alen Hanson followed with an RBI single and Luke Maile punctuated the rally with a two-run homer to the delight of the sparse crowd of 17,326. All the runs were charged to Yonny Chirinos, working his third inning of relief.

Justin Smoak cut the deficit to 8-7 in the eighth, scoring on a fielding error before Tampa intentionally walked Hanson to bring up Maile with the bases loaded and two out. Deigo Castillo struck out the Jays catcher on a borderline 3-2 pitch to end the inning.

Zunino hit an RBI double in the ninth off Javy Guerra and Adames followed with a two-run shot, his first homer of the season, to put the Rays ahead 11-7.