Rays beat Blue Jays as Tyler Alexander flirts with perfect game

TORONTO — From the first inning on, Rays starter Tyler Alexander said he was aware of what was happening in Friday’s game.

Three Blue Jays batters would come up, and Alexander relatively quickly would send them right back to the their dugout.

In such situations, some pitchers get wrapped up in the history they are chasing, go off and sit by themselves or are short with teammates.

But as Alexander’s flirtation with perfection became more real — into the fifth, then the sixth and seventh inning — he sat in his normal spot “smack dab in the middle of the dugout” and exchanged the usual banter with those teammates, such as catcher Ben Rortvedt, not too superstitious to avoid him.

“I was very aware of what I was doing,” Alexander said, “Just trying not to over-try, I guess.”

That approach carried him through the more challenging seventh inning and one out into the eighth, having retired the first 22 Jays. But his bid for the first perfect game and second no-hitter in Rays history ended with one out in the eighth, when Danny Jansen sliced a soft single to shallow rightfield.

Alexander’s night ended shortly thereafter, as he gave up a home run to Davis Schneider and a single to Daulton Varsho. But relievers Manuel Rodriguez and Pete Fairbanks teamed for the final five outs, and the Rays still had reason, though not quite as monumental, to celebrate with a 4-3 victory.

The win was the Rays’ fifth in their last seven games and 10th in 14 as they improved to 24-22, reaching a season-high-matching two games over .500 for the first time in nearly a month, since April 20.

All the talk afterward was about Alexander.

The 29-year-old lefty, acquired off waivers from Detroit in November, seemed an unlikely candidate to threaten history, given his 1-2 record and 5.45 ERA entering the game and the likelihood he will be bumped out of the rotation with Ryan Pepiot’s expected return from the injured list next week.

“That was a really impressive outing,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Happy for him. It gets down to the wire, there’s certainly nerves. I’m guessing he had nerves. We certainly did in the dugout. We know he’s on the verge of doing something special. And he certainly did do something very special.”

The only no-hitter in Rays history was thrown by Matt Garza on July 26, 2010. (Five pitchers combined on a no-hitter in the second, seven-inning, game of a July 7, 2021 doubleheader, but it is not recognized as a no-hitter.) The closest the team came to perfection was Drew Rasmussen retiring the first 24 Orioles on Aug. 14, 2022.

Alexander didn’t do much different on Friday, but he did some things better. Most notably, he was efficient early, needing only 70 pitches to get through the first six innings before finishing with 105.

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Cash noted how Alexander controlled the counts better and put the Jays hitters — an all right-handed and somewhat powerful lineup — on the defensive. What impressed Cash most? “D. All the above.”

Rortvedt said he first noticed in the bullpen how sharp Alexander was and how he carried it into the game, using all quadrants of the plate: “It was fantastic.” Alexander returned the compliment, saying he and Rortvedt were so in tune on pitch selection that he would do an occasional “fake shake” just for effect.

As soon as Jansen hit the ball into shallow right, beyond second baseman Richie Palacios and in front of rightfielder Josh Lowe, the Rays knew Alexander’s run was done.

“(I tried to) do everything I possibly could to try and catch that ball,” Lowe said. “He blooped it in perfectly. I think Richie and I had the same idea: put your head down and run as hard as you can for it. But he got a good hit. Good for him. And good for Todd (as several Rays were calling Alexander in some kind of inside joke). He did his thing. It was awesome to watch.”

Breaking up the perfect game didn’t end the drama. The 4-0 lead the Rays built — on Randy Arozarena’s mad dash from second to home after an infield out, a two-run Palacios homer, a Yandy Diaz RBI single and some sloppy Jays defense — was suddenly cut to 4-3.

Third baseman Isaac Paredes made a diving stop to start a double play that got Manuel Rodriguez out of the eighth, and Pete Fairbanks worked a six-pitch ninth.

Alexander, who said he hadn’t worked into the eighth as a stater since college, was pleased with his night, but not for the reason you might think.

“My goal (Friday) was to not walk anybody, which I didn’t,” he said. “So that was satisfying.”

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