Homer-happy Blue Jays regain 2-game lead over Rays in AL wild-card race

George Springer homered twice, Alejandro Kirk and Teoscar Hernandez also went deep and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 on Sunday to gain a four-game split in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Toronto (86-67) opened a two-game lead over Tampa Bay (84-69) for the top wild card in the American League with nine games left. Seattle (83-68) also was two games back, pending its game at Kansas City later Sunday.

Toronto allowed 20 runs in losing the first two games, but limited Tampa Bay to a total of two runs in winning the final two.

Ross Stripling (9-4) allowed one run and six hits in five innings. Zach Pop, Adam Cimber, Trevor Richards and Yusei Kikuchi combined to give up one hit over four innings.

Rays all-star Shane McClanahan (12-7), who was pulled in the fifth inning of his previous start due to neck tightness, gave up four runs and six hits, including a career-high three homers, over five innings.

Springer had a two-run shot in the third, and added a fifth-inning solo drive for his 23rd homer this season as the Blue Jays took a 4-1 lead. He finished with three hits in his 20th career multi-homer game.

Kirk had a solo homer during the second, and Hernandez made it 6-1 with a two-run homer in the eighth off Garrett Cleavinger.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a ninth-inning RBI single.

Randy Arozarena pulled the Rays to 3-1 on a sacrifice fly in the third.

Sunday's announced crowd was 16,394, giving the Rays a final home attendance for the season of 1,128,127. The total will be the third lowest in the majors. Tampa Bay drew 1,178,735 in 2019, the least year before two seasons with COVID attendance restrictions in place. The Rays have drawn under 1.3 million at home every year since 2015.

Springer has three homers in 13