Clay Buchholz did not find an easy spot for his Toronto Blue Jays debut on Saturday.
The right-hander will oppose the visiting Tampa Bay Rays and 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (2-1, 2.84 ERA) in the second game of a three-game series.
The Rays won the first game Friday night 11-7. Toronto trailed 8-0 before pulling within 8-7 in the eighth inning, but Tampa Bay added three in the ninth.
Not only did the Rays’ Austin Meadows and Brandon Lowe each homer twice, but they each put one into the 500 level during the third inning. The blasts were only the 21st and 22nd home runs to reach the 500 level since the Rogers Centre opened in 1989.
The Rays have won five in a row while the Blue Jays have lost six of their past seven.
Snell allowed six hits, one run and no walks while striking out 11 in six innings Monday during a 5-1 win over the Chicago White Sox.
The left-hander is 4-2 with a 3.00 ERA in eight career starts against Toronto and is 3-1 with a 2.96 ERA in five starts at the Rogers Centre.
Snell was 2-0 with a 0.54 ERA in three starts against the Blue Jays last season, when he did not allow a run in 11 2/3 innings over two starts at Toronto.
Buchholz started the season on the injured list with a right elbow flexor strain. He was 7-2 with a 2.01 ERA in 16 starts with the Arizona Diamondbacks last season.
The 34-year-old veteran last faced the Rays in 2016 as a reliever. He is 14-9 with a 3.48 ERA in 32 career appearances (29 starts) against Tampa Bay.
Toronto signed him in March as a free agent.
The Blue Jays and Rays both are familiar with Buchholz, who spent 10 years with the American League East rival Boston Red Sox.
Buchholz missed most of 2017 with the Philadelphia Phillies because of surgery on the flexor tendon in his right forearm. He signed a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals in March 2018 before moving to the Diamondbacks in May.
“It makes you sit back and think,” Buchholz said. “There’s definitely a couple times in the last couple of years when I didn’t really know what was going to happen.”
Last Sunday with Triple-A Buffalo, Buchholz allowed five runs (three earned) on four hits, all home runs, in five innings. He had five strikeouts and no walks.
Infielder Richard Urena was expected to be demoted Saturday to make roster space for Buchholz.
Friday was the first meeting between the teams since Charlie Montoyo took over as Blue Jays manager this season. He had been Tampa Bay’s third base coach and bench coach during a four-season stint under manager Kevin Cash.
Before the game, all of the items the Rays will be giving out this season at home games — bobbleheads and other merchandise — were placed around Montoyo’s office.
“Hopefully he received them well and can put good use to them,” Cash said. “They’re all giveaways. Charlie was very passionate about the giveaways at (Tropicana Field) on Saturdays and Sundays. He made sure that he always had enough, so the giveaways for this year for 2019, we wanted to make sure that he had all of his Christmas gifts.”
Montoyo was planning revenge.
“I’m thinking what I’m going to do now,” he said. “There’s going to be something tomorrow in their clubhouse, I’ll tell you that. I’ve got to think about it. They drew first blood.”