Blue Jays bomb the Rays’ Chris Archer for victory

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The anticipated matchup between Toronto’s David Price and his protege Chris Archer of the Rays turned out to be so much noise Saturday afternoon.

The Rays scored five runs in their first inning off Archer on two home runs, then went on to roll to a 10-8 victory over Tampa Bay. The Blue Jays have clinched post-season play for the first time in 22 seasons.

Archer gave up nine earned runs in his 3 2/3 innings in one of his worst outings. His record is now 12-13 on the season. He gave up a three-run homer to Jose Bautista and a two-run homer to Russell Martin in the first (later, Bautista added another homer).

It wasn’t a Cy Young sort of day for Price, either, who lasted only five innings and gave up five runs (four earned) in his effort.

Asdrubal Cabrera had three hits for the Rays, while Kevin Kiermaier had a single and a home run.

For the Rays, Matt Andrese starts today against Mark Buehrle.

Gary Shelton is one of the most recognized and honored sportswriters in the history of the state. He has won the APSE's national columnist of the year twice and finished in the top 10 eight times. He was named the Florida Sportswriter of the Year six times. Gary joined SaintPetersBlog in the spring, helping to bring a sports presence to the website. Over his time in sports writing, Gary has covered 29 Super Bowls, 10 Olympics, Final Fours, Masters, Wimbledons and college national championships. He was there when the Bucs won a Super Bowl, when the Lightning won a Stanley Cup and when the Rays went to a World Series. He has seen Florida, FSU and Miami all win national championships, and he covered Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden and Don Shula along the way. He and his wife Janet have four children: Eric, Kevin, K.C. and Tori. To contact, visit [email protected].