Jose Bautista Powers Blue Jays over Rays in 10; Cliff Lee Goes the Distance in Phillies' 3-0 Win over Miami

Players of the Day for Wednesday, May 22, 2013

American League

It's still May, so there's plenty of time for the AL East's last-place Toronto Blue Jays to get back into the race; they have too much talent to be written off so early.

Bautista:
4-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI

The best the Jays can hope for is that the teams ahead of them beat each other senseless, and Toronto can do further damage when they play teams in their division head-to-head.

That exact situation arose Wednesday, as the Orioles topped division-leading New York by a 6-3 tally while Toronto did their part, taking down the Rays, 4-2, in 10 innings.

Jose Bautista drove in all of Toronto's runs, going 4-for-4 with a pair of solo homers and singles in the first and last innings to get the Blue Jays both on the board and off the field with a win.

The 2010 and 2011 AL home run champ belted his 10th in the fourth inning and his 11th in the ninth to send the game into an extra inning. With two down and two aboard in the 10th, Bautista delivered a single to right, scoring Colby Rasmus with the game-winner.

Taking two of three from the visiting Rays, Toronto (19-27) is now nine games behind the Yankees in the division.

National League

Lee: CG, 3H, 5Ks

Despite Atlanta winning their sixth straight, the Phillies have managed to stay close to the NL East leaders, just 5 1/2 games back after defeating the Miami Marlins in Miami, 3-0.

Going the distance for the Phillies was Cliff Lee, who improved to 5-2 on the year with his first shutout and complete game of the season.

Lee fanned five and walked two while limiting the Marlins to just three hits - all singles - throwing 85 of his 115 pitches for strikes.

The win was the 12th career shutout and 27th complete game for the 34-year-old hurler, in a major league career which dates back to 2002, when he broke in with the Cleveland Indians.

The Phillies won the last two games of the series after dropping the opener and stand at 23-24, in third place in the division. Washington holds second place, 4 1/2 behind the Braves.

Today's Trivia: Who holds the all-time career record for shutouts?

Yesterday's Answer: St. Louis speedster, Vince Coleman, swiped 109 bases in 1987.