Yarbrough's brilliance sets stage for rally

Stepping into the batter’s box with runners on first and second and nobody out in the eighth inning of a tie game Saturday night, Manuel Margot figured it was time to put down a sacrifice bunt. He told Kevin Kiermaier, who was on deck, to prepare for the possibility. Margot said he even received the sign to bunt, but it was called off on the first pitch.

“After that, my mentality changed,” Margot said, “and I just went in there to make hard contact.”

• Box score

Margot did exactly that, ripping a 109.1-mph ground ball between the legs of Toronto third baseman Cavan Biggio. Brandon Lowe scored, Margot came around to score on Kiermaier’s groundout, and the Rays emerged with a come-from-behind, 5-3 victory against the Blue Jays at Tropicana Field.

It was a motivating, confidence-building win, Margot said through interpreter Manny Navarro -- one in which the Rays climbed out of a three-run hole thanks to big homers by Mike Zunino and Mike Brosseau off Blue Jays starter Robbie Ray, strong relief work by Ryan Thompson and Andrew Kittredge and a shutdown outing by Ryan Yarbrough.

Yarbrough didn’t start for the Rays on Saturday night. He wasn’t credited with a win. But he took the mound with Tampa Bay trailing by three and pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings to keep his team in the game, giving the Rays every chance to come back and beat the Blue Jays.

“He was outstanding. Comes in, holds it right there. Just bought us a lot of time,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We were having fits with Ray. He was really tough, and Yarbs kind of went toe to toe with him, just kind of quieting their offense to allow us to somehow find a way to get back in the ballgame. Fortunately for us, we did. But Yarbs’ work was spectacular.”

After allowing 12 earned runs over 11 innings in his previous two starts, Yarbrough has now allowed just one run on five hits in 10 2/3 innings pitching after an opener during his last two appearances against the Yankees and Blue Jays. That continues an odd trend for Yarbrough, who is 24-5 with a 3.47 ERA as a reliever and 5-13 with a 4.51 ERA as a starter in his career.

Yarbrough credited his improvement not to a change in role, but to a shift in his mindset. He went on the attack against Toronto’s powerful lineup, focusing on getting ahead in the count much like he did against New York in his last bulk-innings outing.

“I feel like that was a huge thing, just getting ahead in the count right away, and then a lot of cutters in today, just to make guys uncomfortable,” Yarbrough said. “And then just really expanding off that one way or the other, just really having an idea of what I'm wanting to do at all times and just having a really good game plan with Zunino tonight to kind of keep them off balance in that way.”

Brent Honeywell Jr., making his third Major League appearance and his second as an opener, nearly escaped the first inning unscathed. The Blue Jays had runners on the corners with two outs after Honeywell allowed a pair of singles around two strikeouts. First baseman Yandy Díaz tracked Randal Grichuk’s pop-up into foul territory but couldn’t make a somewhat difficult grab. Given another opportunity, Grichuk capitalized by blasting a changeup out to left field for a three-run homer.

Yarbrough entered in the second inning and allowed only three hits and a walk while striking out six. He worked into the seventh inning on only 88 pitches, inducing weak contact with his cutter, changeup and curveball. In three of his five full innings, Yarbrough faced the minimum three batters.

While Yarbrough cruised, the Rays' lineup came back. Zunino homered in the second inning to put Tampa Bay on the board, the only trouble the Rays gave Ray for much of the night.

But seeing that further motivated Yarbrough to work quickly.

“Just really trying to get guys back in the batter's box as soon as possible to kind of let them build off that momentum,” Yarbrough said. “Just trying to be really aggressive, and I felt like that was way better today than it has been.”

After managing only three hits off Ray in the first five innings, the Rays tied the game in the sixth on Randy Arozarena's single and a two-run blast to left by Brosseau. Toronto had a chance to regain the lead in the eighth, loading the bases with two outs, but right-hander Ryan Thompson struck out Alejando Kirk with a slider in the zone to escape the inning, and Andrew Kittredge secured his second career save in the ninth.

Following its three-run, 30-pitch first, the Blue Jays' lineup managed only six hits and two walks the rest of the night. What happened? Just take it from Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo.

"It's called Yarbrough,” Montoyo said. “That was the key. Yarbrough came in and shut us down."