Blue Jays’ Robbie Ray: Strikes out nine in quality start

Ray hurled six innings against Oakland on Wednesday, allowing three runs on six hits and no walks while striking out nine. He did not factor in the decision.

Ray served up a pair of solo shots — one each to Matt Chapman and Ramon Laureano — but was otherwise fairly dominant, inducing 21 swinging strikes and punching out nine batters. Most remarkably, he did not walk a single batter for the third straight start after issuing nine free passes over his first 10 innings of the campaign. The southpaw finished with a 17.9 percent walk rate last season but has cut that number nearly in half in 2021 thanks to his recent streak of excellent control. Not coincidentally, Ray’s walkless stretch has resulted in his first three quality starts of the campaign, and he has struck out 23 batters over 18.2 innings over that span. He’ll try to keep the the impressive stretch going in his next start, which is tentatively slated for Tuesday at Atlanta.

More News