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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Jays 7, Rays 3: Can’t close the deal on sweep

Posted Aug 30, 2011 by Roger Mooney

Updated Aug 29, 2011 at 11:55 PM

ROGER MOONEY
TORONTO It’s hard to beat a team four times in a row, every player and manager will tell you that. But come this time of the year, when you’re trailing in the Wilds Card stands, a four-game sweep is a must after you’ve won the first three games of the series.

The Rays, who took four from the Royals earlier this month, couldn’t close the deal Monday, losing 7-3 to the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.

Making matters worse. The Yankees beat the Orioles and increased their lead over the Rays in the AL Wild Card standings to 7 ½.

The Rays are in better position when they left Toronto than when they arrived, but now they only have 29 games left.

“Every game is big and we feel every time we step on the field we have a chance to win, especially with our pitching staff and our defense,” Johnny Damon said. “We came up a little short, but we’ll be ready to go against a very good Texas team (tonight). We just got to keep winning, keep winning series and hopefully we’ll still be in good position come late September.”

Here are some notes from a disappointing night:

—Damon had his first two-run game since Sept. 9, 2008 when he was with the Yankees. He now has 13 home runs and 60 RBIs.

Damon’s second home run was the 2,703 hit of his career and tied him with Fred Clark for 63rd on the all-time hit list.

Damon joined Evan Longoria and Desmond Jennings as the only Rays to hit two homers in one game this season.

—Wade Davis pitched 4 1/3 innings – the second shortest outing of the season – and allowed six runs on nine hits. He finished August 0-1 with four no-decisions. His last win came July 28 at Oakland when he allowed five first-inning runs before throwing five perfect innings.

—Toronto starter Rickey Romero is now 6-0 with a 1.72 ERA in his last seven starts. He allowed three runs on six hits, walked four and threw a pair of wild pitches.

—The Jays stole four bases off John Jaso. They hit two home runs. It was the first time since 2001 they hit two home runs and stole four bases in the same game.

—Matt Joyce had a rough night in right field.

In the fifth inning, Joyce dived for a sinking line drive by Kelly Johnson, only to have the ball ricochet off his glove and toward the stands. Johnson finished with a triple.

In the eighth inning, Joyce was expecting to play a pop fly by J.P. Arencibia on a hop only to have the ball take one heck of a hop over his head. Arencibia continued on to third with a triple.

The Rays and Jays are the only major league teams to play on AstroTurf, but the turf at the Rogers Centre has more bounce the turf installed at the Trop prior to this season.

“That does not happen in our ballpark,” Maddon said. “That’s the old school ’70s, Afro blowing in the wind bounce over the outfielder’s head.”

Maddon was channel Oscar Gamble and Garry Maddox, two fine outfielders from the 1970s.

“That’s the ’70s bounce right there,” Maddon said.