Jays fall 7-4 on rainy Wednesday

Dunedin, FL - The Dunedin Blue Jays and Charlotte Stone Crabs battled through the rain for three hours with the Crabs eventually winning, 7-4, on Wednesday night at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

RHP Casey Lawrence (L, 3-5) struggled through his 3.1 innings, starting his outing in the second after LHP Darren Oliver threw a perfect first inning in a rehab outing.

Lawrence allowed six runs (four earned) and a season-high 10 hits with one walk and one strikeout, and left the game with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning with the Jays trailing, 5-2.

LHP Tyler Ybarra was tremendous in relief, tossing 2.2 perfect innings with four strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.91. RHP Dayton Marze was effective as well, throwing a 1-2-3 eighth inning with one strikeout. LHP John Anderson ran into some trouble in the top of the ninth, allowing an insurance run on two hits with one walk and one strikeout.

The Jays struck first on a home run by 3B Andy Burns in the bottom of the first inning, but Charlotte tied the score on Hector Guevara's sacrifice fly in the second. The Stone Crabs took a 4-1 lead in the third thanks to two singles, a fielding error, and back-to-back RBI doubles from Drew Vettleson and Hector Guevara.

1B K.C. Hobson got the Jays within two runs with a two-out RBI double in the third, but that was as close as Dunedin would get.

LF Nick Baligod and Hobson hit sacrifice flies in the eighth and ninth, but the tying run was still waiting on deck in the ninth.

RHP Austin Bibens-Dirx will get the start for Dunedin in the series finale on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.