Rookie Good But Not Good Enough As Rays Edge Jays

There was no storybook ending to Scott Richmond’s unlikely big-league debut.

No, the North Vancouver, B.C., native’s start Wednesday afternoon finished like so many other games for the Toronto Blue Jays this season — in a defeat littered with missed opportunities at the plate.

The 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays marked a disappointing end to a three-game series the home side had entered with hopes of pulling themselves back into the race.

Instead, the Blue Jays (54-54) fell back to .500, lost ground on the Rays (63-44) by dropping two of three and now trail the AL East leaders by 9 1-2 games. For a cherry on top, catcher Gregg Zaun went public with his desire to play elsewhere while third baseman Scott Rolen learned he needs regular rest to ease a “mechanical” issue in his left shoulder.

Good times.

Richmond (0-1), the 28-year-old former shipyards worker who spent the past three seasons playing unaffiliated baseball, did his part to try and turn things around.

The right-hander allowed just three runs over 5 1-3 innings, and while the Rays did take some good hacks at him, he managed to keep his team in the ballgame before a crowd of 40,322.

His future will be closely watched by the Canadian Olympic team, as his callup earlier in the week forced him off the roster for Beijing. Should the Blue Jays return him to the minors before Friday, he’ll still be able to play in the Games but the club says he’s up for an extended look.

The Canadian team plans to hold off naming a replacement for him until all hope is lost.

Carl Crawford’s RBI triple in the first opened the scoring and came after the Blue Jays failed to turn two on B.J. Upton’s grounder to short. Richmond right after that, striking out Evan Longoria to keep Crawford at third before Carlos Pena flew out to end the inning.

Lyle Overbay buoyed his pitcher in the bottom half with a two-run shot of Edwin Jackson (7-7) that gave the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead, and that seemed to settle Richmond until the fourth, when Pena tied things up with a solo shot.

Eric Hinske immediately followed with a double and came around to score when another former Blue Jay, Gabe Gross, hit into a double play.

That was all for the scoring in this one, but not before the Blue Jays displayed their customary inability to bring runners home from third base with less than two outs.

In the fourth, Adam Lind opened the inning with a triple but was left to rot on the bag as Brad Wilkerson popped out, Zaun grounded out and John McDonald flew out.

It was the middle of the lineup’s turn to kill a rally in the fifth, as after Joe Inglett and Marco Scutaro reached and advanced to second and third on a wild pitch, Alex Rios grounded out to Jackson, Overbay struck out and after Matt Stairs of Fredericton walked, Lind flew out.

Jackson gave up seven hits and two walks in five innings before relievers J.P. Howell, Grant Balfour, Dan Wheeler and Troy Percival, who worked the ninth for his 23rd save, wrapped things up.

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