Blue Jays Homer Their Way Past Rays 7-4

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Dioner Navarro and Edwin Encarnacion each hit two-run home runs and the Toronto Blue Jays rolled to their fourth straight win with a 7-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wedesnday night.

Adam Lind had four straight hits and scored twice for the Jays, who have won a road series against the Rays for the first time in more than seven years.

Marcus Stroman pitched five shutout innings before giving up two runs on four hits in the sixth.

Navarro homered for the second straight night, giving Toronto a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Encarnacion's 29th homer completed a three-run run fifth inning off Rays starter Chris Archer (8-8) that gave Toronto a 6-0 lead.

Stroman (9-5) gave up seven hits and two runs in six innings, winning his second straight start.

Aaron Sanchez pitched the ninth for his second save.

Archer (8-8) gave up six runs on 10 hits in six innings.

Evan Longoria drove in Tampa Bay's first run with a two-out single in the sixth, then hit his 18th home run off Dustin McGowan in the eighth. The Rays third baseman has 37 RBIs in 43 games since the All-Star break.

The game was held up for 30 minutes during the third inning when lightning struck a nearby power station, knocking out a bank of lights.

By winning the first two games of the three-game series, the Blue Jays clinched their first series victory at Tropicana Field since April 6-8, 2007, breaking a string of 21 straight non-winning series. They had lost 17 consecutive road series against the Rays (including one in Orlando) before splitting a four-game series on May 6-9, 2013.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Blue Jays: Encarnacion was the DH for the second straight game due to minor back discomfort. . . . RHP R.A. Dickey, Tuesday night's winning pitcher, was hit in the head by a line drive during batting practice. The Jays said he is not injured.

Rays: CF Desmond Jennings (bruised left knee) was out of the lineup for the sixth consecutive games and could miss a few more games. ... LHP Matt Moore, coming back from elbow ligament replacement surgery in April, could play catch for the first time next week.

ON DECK

Rays RHP Jake Odorizzi (10-11) and Blue Jays LHP Mark Buehrle (11-9) are the scheduled starters in the finale of a three-game series Thursday night. Odorizzi is coming off a 7-0 win over Boston Saturday in which he allowed one hit in seven innings.