Blue Jays surge past Rays with four-run sixth

ST. PETERSBURG — There’s an incredible stubbornness to the Blue Jays.

They aren’t the flashy team, throwing early haymakers or launching late-game comebacks, but they’re making a habit of not blinking first.

Friday night’s 6-2 win over the Rays at Tropicana Field looked so much like what Tampa Bay has done to Toronto over the years, waiting patiently for the other club to stumble and then taking advantage of that weakness.

“This is how we need to win ballgames,” starter Chris Bassitt said. “I think a lot of people thought our identity was hitting coming into the year, now it’s kind of like an awkward panic. But I think our identity is pitching and defense. I think that’s what wins the World Series. It’s pitching and defense. 

“Yeah, our hitting has been sporadic at times, but if our pitching is keeping us in games, then games like this can happen. We’re going to try to outlast you.”

With the Rangers and Mariners playing their first of seven head-to-head games on Friday, the Blue Jays have done their part to keep their door to the postseason wide open while the other two teams in the race beat up on one another.

Whether Toronto can hit elite pitching remains a genuine and justified worry, but wins like Friday’s show what it looks like when that simply doesn’t matter.

Rays starter Tyler Glasnow represented that exact challenge, pitching to the peak of his talent and carrying a one-hitter into the sixth, but that’s when the Blue Jays started to sense weakness.

George Springer and Bo Bichette both ripped singles off defenders’ gloves and stole a base, then the walks started. The Blue Jays loaded the bases, walked home a run and then scored another when Matt Chapman took a ball off the hip, which has become an unusually common source of offense for Toronto.

That was the team’s seventh hit batter with the bases loaded this season, moving the Blue Jays in front of the Dodgers for the most in Major League Baseball. Glasnow was no longer on the mound by that point, as the Blue Jays had completely flipped the game in their favor.

“The group that can do those things has been here all year,” said manager John Schneider, “and when you’re not in a hurry, you make better decisions about what you’re going to swing at. That’s what we’ve done. When you’re facing really good pitchers, I think there’s a heightened sense of what’s going on. It’s that time of year. We’ll take a couple of walks, a hit-by-pitch and a couple big knocks.”

Was this the most electrifying four-run inning of the season? No. But winning is always in style.

Of course, this style doesn’t work without one of the best pitching staffs on the planet. If the Blue Jays had even an average rotation, so many of these games would creep too far from them to matter, but Bassitt carried on what’s been an absolutely brilliant season from the starting five.

Bassitt held the Rays to two runs over 6 2/3 frames and struck out…