Over his past two starts, Archer has not allowed a run over 14 innings while giving up only three hits. He allowed three earned runs or fewer in 15 straight road starts, and in 14 of them, it was two or fewer. The Rays won 10 of his past 11 starts. Peter Llewellyn-USA TODAY Sports
TORONTO — When Blue Jays manager John Gibbons talked about his team’s 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, he blamed it all on Chris Archer.
The Rays right-handed starter blanked Toronto on two hits through seven innings.
“The key to tonight’s game was Archer,” Gibbons said. “He’s one of the best young pitchers in the game. We’ve seen that over the last couple of years that he’s developed into that. All night long he’d flip that off-speed pitch, whether it was a slider or a changeup, behind in the count.
“I know we’ve talked many times, guys that can do that in the big leagues, they win. They’re tough. You can’t lock in. As hard as he throws, it’s going to be a tough go.”
Over his past two starts, Archer has not allowed a run over 14 innings while giving up only three hits. He allowed three earned runs or fewer in 15 straight road starts, and in 14 of them, it was two or fewer. The Rays won 10 of his past 11 starts.
“Tonight, he had both sliders working really well, the put-away one and then the one that he could kind of drop in behind in the count,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “When he’s got that pitch going, where he can throw the breaking ball behind in the count to pick up strikes, he’s going to be very tough, very tough.”
Archer worked both sides of the plate well against the Blue Jays and hit two batters. The hit-by-pitches did not look to be intentional, but Rays third baseman Evan Longoria was plunked by Blue Jays reliever Marco Estrada.
Archer offered little comment on the situation.
“I don’t have anything to say about it,” he said. “It’s baseball.”
