Yandy Díaz homers, Drew Rasmussen earns 6th straight win as the Rays beat the Blue Jays 7-6

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Yandy Díaz hit a two-run homer, Drew Rasmussen earned his sixth consecutive win and Bryan Baker converted his 25th straight save opportunity to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 7-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

The Rays led 7-1 before Toronto scored four runs in the fifth and another in the sixth to make it a one-run game. But, the Rays’ bullpen shut down Toronto's last 12 batters, and Baker got the last three outs for his major league-leading 36th save.

McAdoo, who was stranded at second base in the ninth, stole his first career base and led the Blue Jays with a career-high three hits. Alejandro Kirk homered and drove in two runs for Toronto.

Rasmussen (13-5) retired his first eight batters before McAdoo legged out an infield single in the third. Kirk’s solo homer in the fourth broke up the shutout.

Rasmussen is the fifth pitcher in Rays history to win six straight starts and the first since Blake Snell won a franchise-best nine in a row in 2018.

Toronto starter Max Scherzer (1-6) struggled in the fourth, when the Rays sent nine batters to the plate. The 42-year-old right-hander allowed five runs in the inning on three hits as the small-ball Rays scored three times on balls that didn't leave the infield.

Díaz got Tampa Bay on the board with his two-run shot, his 19th this season, in the bottom of the first.

Tampa Bay capitalized on a rough outing by Jesús Sánchez, who struggled to track two fly balls against the Tropicana Field roof. Junior Caminero’s first-inning fly bounced in front of Sánchez for a ground-rule double. In the fourth, Richie Palacios’ high fly eluded Sánchez and ended up as a two-run double.

Díaz, Chandler Simpson and Taylor Walls each extended hitting streaks to 10 games.

Toronto’s Brett Batemen left following his third-inning groundout with right hamstring tightness.

Blue Jays RHP Shane Bieber (4-2, 4.99 ERA) faces Rays LHP Ian Seymour (9-3, 4.11) in the series finale Thursday.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Toronto Blue Jays' Alejandro Kirk celebrates his home run off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen with third base coach Carlos Febles (51) during the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Kazuma Okamoto, of Japan, races Tampa Bay Rays' Richie Palacios to the base during the sixth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Cedric Mullins, right, scores ahead of the throw to Toronto Blue Jays catcher Brandon Valenzuela on a bunt during the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Bryan Baker reacts after closing out the Toronto Blue Jays during the ninth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Yandy Díaz celebrates his two-run home run off Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

CHICLAYO, Peru (AP) — If the “popemania” that has taken over Peru’s capital is any indication, Pope Leo XIV is in for quite a welcome party when he arrives in his beloved former diocese of Chiclayo on Friday.

Chiclayo, population 700,000, is the commercial hub of Peru’s northern Pacific coast. But much of the world heard about it on the night of Leo’s election, May 8, 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout, in Spanish, from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.

And on Friday, Chiclayo is welcoming its former shepherd home.

“I’m so glad he’s returning,” said Rolando Antonio Mendoza, who was selling posters bearing the pope's image in front of the cathedral where Leo used to celebrate Mass. “Even though he’s now Pope Leo XIV, he hasn’t forgotten about his homeland.”

Church organizers say as many as a million people could turn out for Leo’s first big Mass in Peru, being held Friday morning on a massive field outside Chiclayo.

The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place and its people with teaching him how to be a shepherd. Pope Francis sent the Chicago-born Augustinian to take over as bishop of Chiclayo in 2014 and he stayed until Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to run the Vatican's bishops' office.

In hindsight, the 2023 transfer to Rome signaled that Francis saw in Prevost a potential successor, since the job is one of the most important in the church and would give Prevost the Vatican experience that many consider necessary to be a viable contender for the papacy.

But Prevost's heart is in Chiclayo, where he remains beloved for championing social justice issues and for his closeness to the people, especially poor people, during times of crisis. And he had quite a few during his tenure: COVID-19, devastating floods, and a surge of Venezuelan migrants as the humanitarian situation worsened there in 2018.

“Chiclayo is a party,” said Rocio Zena, who remembered how Prevost helped her when she lost her family home in the 2023 floods. “We’re overjoyed to welcome the Holy Father with so much faith. He arrives, no longer as Prevost but as Leo XIV. And he’s coming home.”

In town, the El Trebol restaurant proudly calls itself the restaurant of the pope and his image is displayed in framed photos of Prevost riding a horse, wading through the mud in rubber boots and celebrating his birthday with a cake.

A sign on his favorite table — No. 3 — with a view of the cathedral, reads: “mesa bendita” – Spanish for blessed table. Like many other places around the city, the restaurant sells “Papaletas” or “Pop(e)sicles with Leo's image in white chocolate.

Just a few steps from the restaurant, a life-size cardboard cutout of the pope now welcomes visitors to his former residence at the diocese, where an exhibit displays the amaranth purple, scarlet and white zucchettos, or skullcaps, that he wore as bishop, cardinal and now pope.

“I feel so happy about my work because the pope is Chiclayano,” said Cynthia Charrary, who was sweeping the streets near the city’s main square ahead of Leo’s arrival. “We want our city to be cleaner than ever.”

Ever since Leo touched down on Peruvian soil on Wednesday, the world has seen a very different pope.

Normally reserved and placid, the 71-year-old Leo has seemed at turns positively giddy and overwhelmed with emotion to the point of tears.

That was certainly the case on Thursday night when some 60,000 young Peruvians sang for him in the Lima stadium. It was also the case when he sang the national anthem at the presidential palace upon his arrival on Wednesday.

Leo has also sung along with popular songs and hymns, tapping his fingers to the beat on an armchair.

On other occasions, he has shown himself so relaxed and comfortable as to joke about his health. Speaking to Peruvian bishops, he joked about how some “doubting Thomases” didn’t think he’d make it because of his recent lung cancer surgery.

After the Mass, Leo's other main events of the day include a meeting with Chiclayo clergy and seminarians and a speech to the Catholic university where he served as chancellor during his years as bishop. The university is named for the 16th-century first archbishop of Lima, St. Turibius de Mogrovejo.

Leo is particularly devoted to Mogrovejo and in many ways modeled his ministry on his.

Mogrovejo is revered for having traveled long distances on horseback to be with his flock and for having defended the rights of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. He studied Quechua and Aymara and oversaw the printing of church teaching in these Indigenous languages, because he believed the faith had to be transmitted in a language people could understand.

The Rev. John Lydon, an Augustinian who lived with Leo in Peru for over 10 years, says his commitment to Peruvians, human rights and involving the lay faithful in the running of church initiatives was born during his stints first as a young missionary priest in Chulucanas, then Trujillo and finally as bishop in Chiclayo.

Lydon recalled that when Leo first arrived in Peru in the mid-1980s, during the period of the Shining Path terror campaign and the authoritarian Fujimori regime’s crackdown, then-Rev. Prevost led a campaign to collect signatures to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“These are the kind of things that just mark his identity,” Lydon recalled.

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Winfield reported from Lima, Peru

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A cutout of Pope Leo XIV is displayed outside a restaurant in Chiclayo, Peru, where the pontiff served as bishop, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

People take a selfie with a sign of Pope Leo XIV in Chiclayo, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Faithful cheer during a prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end of a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV catches a stuffed lion as he arrives to lead a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)