Rays 1 Blue Jays 0: Bring out the Brooms

Rays walk offST. PETERSBURG FL. A true bullpen day held the Blue Jays scoreless; Mallex Smith and Matt Duffy combined to push through the only run the Rays needed to emerge victorious today.

I love a pitcher’s duel, a nice crisp fast-moving pitchers duel. But that’s not how this game started out. A thirty minute first inning, with Rays opener Wilmer Font at 28 pitches and Jay’s starter J. A. Happ at 30, seemed to presage a long game.

It also had the makings of one of the sloppy outings that tend to come about during afternoon games after night game. The Rays committed an error in the top of the first (an errant Font throw to Bauers at first), and Toronto in the bottom of the first on a Bauers…