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On Tuesday, the Toronto Blue Jays completely dumptrucked the Tampa Bay Rays in a 20-1 blowout victory. The lone highlight for the AL East leaders in this 19-run loss came in the eighth inning when outfielder Luke Raley struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with a 50 mph curveball.
Luke Raley bamboozles Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with a 50 mph curveball...
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 24, 2023
... and ducks out of the way just in case pic.twitter.com/VxBInVnuaH
The Blue Jays slugger was a good sport about it and even sent Raley a gift prior to this afternoon’s series finale at Tropicana Field.
After Luke Raley pitched on Tuesday, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed the strike out ball for Raley & wrote on the ball:
— Tricia Whitaker (@TriciaWhitaker) May 25, 2023
“You got me.”
Love it. pic.twitter.com/Px65c75b2T
With the game completely out of hand on Tuesday, the Rays decided to save some of their bullpen arms by sending outfielder the outfielder Raley to the mound in the eighth and ninth innings. This, predictably. did not go well for “Nuke” Raley as he ended up yielding seven earned runs off eight hits in just 1.2 innings of work. But hey, he fooled Vlad Jr. in that one at bat and that’s what really counts. Guerrero did blast a grand slam off Raley the following inning, so he did end up getting the last laugh.