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TORONTO (AP) — layoff contender to lose to Toronto rookie left-hander Thomas Pannone.Pannone pitched 6 2-3 innings to win his third straight start Robin Yount Jersey , Rowdy Tellez homered and drove in three and the Blue Jays beat the Rays 5-2 Saturday, dealing another blow to Tampa Bay’s faint playoff hopes.In his previous two starts, Pannone got the best of playoff-bound Cleveland and the New York Yankees.“It definitely gives me the confidence that I know my stuff can play here,” Pannone said. “I’m facing good lineups, good hitters and I’m turning them over pretty well. I just want to continue to do that.”Tellez singled in the second, hit a two-run homer in the fourth, and added an insurance run with an RBI double in the eighth.“We’ve got to somehow figure out how to get Tellez out,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He’s kind of beat us up this series.”Making his fifth major league start, Pannone (4-1) allowed two runs and six hits. He walked three, struck out five, and left to a standing ovation.“He had good stuff, was locating well,” Rays infielder Joey Wendle said of Pannone. “He kind of silenced us for a while.”After Pham opened the scoring in the third with his 20th home run, Pannone walked the bases loaded but escaped further damage by striking out Willy Adames.“He’s kind of funky,” Adames said. “You don’t get a good read off the ball.”The Blue Jays responded with a three-run fourth against Tyler Glasnow (2-7). Justin Smoak drew a leadoff walk and Tellez hit a one-out homer, his third. One out later, Kevin Pillar singled and scored on Reese McGuire’s double.Tommy Pham and Jesus Sucre hit solo home runs for the Rays, who slipped 7 ½ games behind Oakland, a 3-2 winner over the Twins http://www.brewersfanproshop.com/authentic-orlando-arcia-jersey , in the race for the second AL wild card. Tampa Bay has eight games remaining.“We’ve been playing our tails off to get into contention,” Wendle said. “We’re going to continue to do that and see what happens.”Toronto has won two of the first three of the four-game set, rallying with a seven-run ninth inning in Thursday’s 9-8 win. The Blue Jays are 5-10 against the Rays this season.Pannone gave up a two-out homer to Sucre in the seventh and left after the next batter, Mallex Smith, reached on an infield single. Ryan Tepera came on and walked Pham, then struck out Matt Duffy to end the threat.Tyler Clippard worked the eighth and Ken Giles finished for his 24th save in 24 opportunities.Glasnow allowed three runs and six hits in six innings in losing for the fourth time in five starts. He’s 0-2 with an 8.49 ERA in three starts against Toronto.IN GOOD STANDING, PART 1Tellez has 12 extra-base hits in his first 16 games, tied for fourth most since 1913. Joe DiMaggio (1936), Chris Dickerson (2008) and Trevor Storey (2016) each had 13.IN GOOD STANDING, PART 2Pannone said he enjoyed walking off with the crowd of 27,648 on their feet.“It’s probably the coolest feeling ever when you walk off the mound and everyone is standing up like that cheering at you,” Pannone said. “It’s overwhelming in that moment. You look up and you’re like ‘Wow, all these people are cheering for me right now.'”SOLO ACTFifteen of Pham’s 20 homers this season have been solo blasts.TRAINER’S ROOMRays: OF Kevin Kiermaier was held out of the starting lineup. Manager Kevin Cash said Kiermaier was “a little banged up.” … DH Ji-Man Choi (left knee) did not start but came on as a pinch hitter in the ninth, drawing a one-out walk. Choi left Friday’s game after five innings.UP NEXTRays LHP Blake Snell (20-5, 1.97) faces Blue Jays LHP Ryan Borucki (4-4, 3.86) in Sunday’s series finale. Snell is 8-0 with a 1.17 ERA in his past eight starts, striking out 63 batters over 46 innings in that stretch. Borucki pitched eight shutout innings to beat Baltimore in his previous outing, snapping a three-start winless streak. FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Alex Cora guided the Boston Red Sox to a franchise-record 108 wins and a World Series victory last season http://www.brewersfanproshop.com/authentic-orlando-arcia-jersey , and then he reported to his second spring training as a major league manager as if nothing had changed.Still just 43, Cora has a chance to be the first Red Sox manager to win back-to-back championships in more than 100 years.And he’s approaching it with the same, unruffled demeanor as when he was a rookie.“I think that’s why we were so consistent last year,” utilityman Brock Holt said this week as the team made the transition from workouts to the exhibition season.“If we won, we came in here, turned the music on, showered, went home. If we lost, we didn’t turn the music on,” Holt said. “That’s what helped us to be so consistent. It wasn’t any different; there was no panic. He stayed with his plan.”A native of Puerto Rico who is the first minority manager in franchise history and one of the youngest ever to run the Red Sox dugout, Cora didn’t need much time to figure things out in Boston. After losing their opener, they won nine straight games and 17 of the next 18.They finished the regular season 108-54 — the best record in franchise history, and eight games ahead of the rival Yankees. They never lost more than three in a row, and their worst stretch of six losses in eight games came in August after they were already 50 games above .500 with a double-digit lead in the division.Through it all, Cora never changed.“Over the course of 162 games, things aren’t always going to go well,” outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. “He stayed even-keeled.”But never distant.While some managers looked at the clubhouse as the players’ domain, Cora will be out among them, joking around or just checking in. It doesn’t hurt that he is only eight years older than first baseman Steve Pearce Christian Yelich Jersey , and was teammates with second baseman Dustin Pedroia on the Boston team that won it all in 2007.Holt called Cora “one of the smartest baseball people” he’s met, and noted that the manager’s ability to speak both Spanish and English also helps him relate to many of the team’s Hispanic players.“He’s one of the best communicators I’ve ever been around in the game,” Holt said. “As players, we always know what to expect, what we need to do. You see him in here, joking around with guys. He talks to everyone. I enjoy being around someone who enjoys being around us.”The season-long effort to communicate paid off after Game 3 of the AL Division Series against the Yankees, when Holt became the first player in major league history to hit for the cycle in a postseason game.Cora texted him that night to say he would be benched for Game 4 in favor of Ian Kinsler.“I expected it before it even happened,” Holt said. “I didn’t think anything about it. We all knew what’s happening, and what we were trying to do.”Kinsler doubled in the game’s first run and the Red Sox advanced to the AL Championship Series.And Holt was back in the lineup for Game 1 against the Houston Astros. Boston lost that one before winning the next six games, taking a 2-0 lead in the World Series before the Dodgers slowed them down with an 18-inning victory in Game 3. The Red Sox finished Los Angeles off in five games.Cora is the fifth Red Sox manager to win it all in his first season in Boston, but the first ever to win as a managerial rookie. His .667 winning percentage is also the best in franchise history.Asked this week if there was anything he learned last year that he would do differently in his second season, Cora noted that it was coach Ramon Vazquez’s wife’s birthday, and that was an unexpected setback for the staff in 2018.“He forgot about it last year,” Cora said with a laugh. “So we made a point to FaceTime her. She’s in California, and we have a cake and balloons and everything. So we’re making adjustments on the fly.“We made sure he didn’t forget this year,” Cora said. “Yeah, I mean, teamwork.”