Major League Baseball
Tampa Bay 12, Toronto 2
When: 7:07 PM ET, Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Where: Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Temperature: Indoors
Umpires: Home - Mark Wegner, 1B - Marty Foster, 2B - Mike Muchlinski, 3B - Mike Winters
Attendance: 27521

TORONTO -- The Tampa Bay Rays possessed a potent offense for the second night in a row, but manager Kevin Cash saved some of his praise for starting pitcher Chris Archer.

The right-hander, who struggled early in the season, fell behind after a two-run homer by Jose Bautista in the first inning Tuesday night, then allowed the Toronto Blue Jays nothing more over six innings.

Brad Miller led the way with three hits and three RBIs, and the Rays defeated the Blue Jays 12-2 .

"Obviously, the offense was outstanding again," Cash said. "But you have to talk about what Arch did. They came out, and Bautista (hit a) homer on a pretty decent pitch. It just shows how strong the guy is to get it out to center.

"(Archer) battled for a little while and then settled in, and that was great to see for Arch. That's kind of what we needed to see out of him. He provided a huge boost or us. Happy for him. That's the guy we need to see more times than not."

The Rays' offense came from all over.

Taylor Motter, playing in just his second game, hit his first major league homer, a two-run shot in the ninth against Toronto right-hander Drew Storen as a pinch hitter for Miller.

Motter was called up from Triple-A on Sunday and had his first major league hit in his first game on Monday.

Logan Morrison added two RBIs, and Kevin Kiermaier went 3-for-4 for the Rays, who outhit the Blue Jays 17-5 in handing Toronto its fourth loss in a row.

Tampa Bay outhit Toronto 17-8 on Monday in a 13-2 rout in the opener of the three-game series.

Archer (3-4) allowed four hits, four walks and two runs while striking out seven in six innings for his third consecutive winning decision over five starts.

"Being able to pitch five scoreless innings after how it started is something I can hang my hat on," Archer said.

Toronto right-hander Marcus Stroman (4-1) allowed a career-high 13 hits and seven runs in 5 2/3 innings.

He had won his nine previous decisions dating to Sept. 20, 2014. He missed most of last season following knee surgery.

"They did a great job of putting the ball in play," Stroman said. "I fell behind in some counts, and they did a good job of capitalizing on that with timely hits. I felt great. I just felt like I couldn't get ahead in counts. My stuff felt great. My arm felt loose, and I felt like I had a little more velocity than I've had in the past."

Evan Longoria singled with two outs in the first, and Steve Pearce doubled to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.

Michael Saunders walked to lead off the bottom of the first, and Bautista hit a one-out laser to center for his seventh homer of the season.

"I wouldn't call connecting on one pitch any outstanding type of success," said Bautista, who was playing after appealing a one-game suspension issued for his part in a Sunday brawl with the Texas Rangers. "We just have to continue to have good at-bats, get men on base and then figure out a way to drive them in.

"It's been a tough two days, pretty ugly. ... It hasn't been pretty, but it's just two days. We've got to continue moving forward with that mentality and try to flush it out of our system."

Morrison doubled with one out in the second inning, took third on Kiermaier's double and scored on Curt Casali's groundout to third. Brandon Guyer grounded an RBI single to left, and Miller hit an RBI triple to center

The Rays took a 5-2 lead in the third on singles by Steven Souza Jr. and Corey Dickerson and a fielder's choice grounder to shortstop by Morrison.

Pearce walked to lead off the fifth and took third on Dickerson's one-out double. Morrison and Kiermaier followed with RBI single.

The Rays (18-19) reached double digits in runs for the second straight game against the Blue Jays (19-22) when they scored three unearned runs in the seventh against reliever Pat Venditte, who pitches both left- and right-handed.

Kiermaier hit an infield single with two outs. Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson committed errors on successive grounders by Casali and Guyer, and Miller hit a two-run double to increase the margin to 10-2.

Jimmy Paredes pinch-hit for Bautista in the eighth to make his Blue Jays debut and delivered a line-drive single that struck right-handed reliever Ryan Webb, who went down but was able to finish the inning.

"I thought I got a little bit of glove on it, but it still squared me up pretty good," Webb said. "I had an accident a couple of years ago where I hit my jaw, and it's been clicking ever since. I think that might have fixed it."

NOTES: Toronto manager John Gibbons has been suspended three games after the brawl Sunday at Texas. Gibbons, ejected earlier for arguing balls and strikes, returned to the field in the eighth inning when the benches emptied. Bench coach DeMarlo Hale will fill in. Rangers 2B Rougned Odor was suspended eight games for punching Toronto RF Jose Bautista, who is appealing his one-game suspension. RHP Jesse Chavez was suspended for three games for intentionally hitting Rangers 1B Prince Fielder with a pitch. First base coach Tim Leiper was suspended one game. ... Toronto activated INF Jimmy Paredes (left wrist) from the disabled list Tuesday and returned INF Andy Burns to Triple-A Buffalo. Paredes was claimed Monday off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles. ... Toronto recalled LHP/RHP Pat Venditte and returned RHP Dustin Antolin to Buffalo. ... Rays RHP Jake Odorizzi (0-2, 3.82 ERA) will start the finale of the three-game series Wednesday against Blue Jays RHP R.A. Dickey (2-4, 4.31 ERA).
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Tampa Bay   Toronto
Chris Archer Player Marcus Stroman
Win W/L Loss
6.0 IP 5.2
7 Strikeouts 2
4 Hits 13
3.00 ERA 11.12
Hitting
Tampa Bay   Toronto
Kevin Kiermaier Player Jimmy Paredes
3 Hits 1
1 RBI 0
0 HR 0
4 TB 1
.750 Avg 1.000
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Tampa Bay 17 1 27 .378 19 4 11 3 1 0
Toronto 5 1 9 .167 15 10 2 4 0 2