Doubles lift Blue Jays over Rays on Canada Day

TORONTO — Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk hit three consecutive doubles as the Blue Jays cruised past the Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 on Friday in Toronto's first home game on Canada Day since 2019.

The Blue Jays played in Dunedin, Fla., and Buffalo, N.Y. for most of the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to COVID-19 regulations.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had a solo home run in the seventh inning for Toronto (44-33) and George Springer batted two runs in with a single in the sixth.

José Berríos (6-4) allowed two runs on eight hits and two walks over five innings. He had three strikeouts.

Trent Thornton, Sergio Romo, Max Castillo came on in relief for the Blue Jays.

Designated hitter Harold Ramirez had an RBI double as Tampa Bay (40-36) dropped its fourth game in a row.

Corey Kluber (3-5) lasted only three innings, giving up five runs on seven hits and two walks.

Phoenix Sanders and David McKay, who gave up four runs, came out of the Rays' bullpen. Right-fielder Brett Phillips pitched Tampa's final frame.

Tampa Bay opened the scoring in the second inning when catcher René Pinto grounded out to third, but gave Ramirez enough time to score.

Bichette, Guerrero and Kirk broke the game open for Toronto with three consecutive RBI doubles in the third inning.

Bichette came to the plate with the bases loaded and banged a double off the right-field wall to score Gurriel and Cavan Biggio.

On the next pitch, Guerrero doubled down the left-field line to bring in Springer and Bichette.

That brought Kirk up to the plate with the sold-out crowd of 44,445 chanting "M-V-P" for the top vote-getter among American League catchers in all-star balloting.

His hit also went down the left-field line to cash in Guerrero for a 5-1 lead.

Ramirez