Bullpen boosts Blue Jays to Saturday win

JUPITER, FL – Kekai Rios drove in all three Blue Jays runs, and Dunedin’s bullpen turned in six shutout frames to set up a 3-1 victory over Palm Beach on Saturday night at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

The Jays’ win pushes the team back to .500 at 28-28.

Before pitching took center stage late, the action at the plate transpired early.

The Cardinals struck first in the second inning against Nolan Perry. With two outs, Perry issued a walk, then a balk was called to move Brayden Jobert to second base. It loomed large as the next batter, Johnfrank Salazar, ripped an RBI double to make it 1-0 Palm Beach.

Dunedin responded quickly in the top of the third against Cards’ starter Chen-Wei Lin. Alexis Hernandez opened the inning with a single. With one out, Bryce Arnold lined a double to the wall in left, appearing to drive in Hernandez, but the ball rolled under the wall for a ground rule double.

Lin hit Jean Joseph with pitch to load the bases for Manuel Beltre, but forced Beltre to pop out. That brought up Rios, who sent a blooper to left field. Luis Pino dove and missed the ball, allowing all three runners to score for a three-RBI double.

That proved to be enough for the Blue Jays. Perry finished three innings, stranding runners on first and second in the bottom of the third to finish his day, and then gave way to the bullpen.

Irv Carter started things off for the ‘pen, working 2.2 shutout frames, averting damage from two fifth inning baserunners. TJ Brock entered with two outs in the sixth and eventually retired all four batters he faced.

Felipe Bello was called upon for a two inning save and didn’t disappoint, facing the minimum to collect his second save of the season.

The Blue Jays will play for the series victory tomorrow in Jupiter, with first pitch set for noon. Fans can listen to the hometown radio broadcast for free online at https://www.milb.com/dunedin/fans/radio. Dunedin returns to TD Ballpark Tuesday to open a six-game series with Bradenton.

BLUE JAYS BRIEFS: A win tomorrow would mark the Blue Jays’ first road series win since April 9-14 at Tampa (5-1 series win)… TJ Brock has thrown 3.1 scoreless innings on his rehab assignment…. Manuel Beltre extended his on-base streak to 22 games with a seventh-inning single… All five games of the series in Palm Beach have been decided by two or fewer…