fourth-and-1 from the Philade

TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays wanted to kick off a critical nine-game homestand with a bang to give their fading playoff hopes a boost. The Tampa Bay Rays ended up showing them how its done. Drew Smyly threw a two-hit shutout and Evan Longoria homered and drove in three runs as the Rays dumped the Blue Jays 8-0 on Friday night at Rogers Centre. Wil Myers also went deep as the Rays pounded out 14 hits in the opener of a three-game series. It was the seventh loss in nine games for the Blue Jays (65-63), who entered play four games out of the final wild-card spot in the American League. "When youre high, everything is going to go your way. When youre struggling, everything is going to go against you," said Toronto catcher Dioner Navarro. "A couple of plays here and there probably would have changed the outcome of the game. "But they outplayed us today, they outpitched us, they outhustled us." Longoria took Marcus Stromans first pitch in the second inning over the wall to give Tampa Bay an early 1-0 lead. It was his 16th homer of the season. Tampa Bay took advantage of some suspect defence in the fifth inning. Matt Joyce led off with a double on a ball that bounced off right-fielder Jose Bautistas glove as he tried to make a running catch at the warning track. Longoria walked and James Loney followed with a grounder to short that should have been a double-play ball. But second baseman Steve Tollesons throw to first bounced in the dirt, allowing Joyce to score. The Rays drove Stroman (7-5) from the game in the sixth and burned reliever Aaron Loup in a four-run frame that put the game out of reach. "I figured wed come out there tonight with a little more energy," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "We didnt have it and we made some mistakes, we couldnt turn that big double play. We laid back on a couple balls, things like that. "But Smyly was pretty good out there, Ill give him that." It was the first shutout and first complete game of the southpaws career. Smyly threw 75 of his 105 pitches for strikes, didnt walk a batter and had four strikeouts. "It was good, I have been waiting for this game," he said. "I didnt know if I was ever going to get it because I usually have high pitch counts." Stroman, meanwhile, allowed 10 hits, five earned runs, three walks and had six strikeouts. "I was just up a little bit," Stroman said. "My sinker was pretty good, change-up wasnt bad. It was just a couple pitches that I left up, some curve balls that were up in the zone and they capitalized on it." Smyly (8-10) allowed a single to Jose Reyes in the first inning and a single to Tolleson in the third before retiring the next 19 batters in order. "That was, for my money, the best pitching performance Ive seen from a Ray in this ballpark," said Tampa manager Joe Maddon. "Truly a really artistic performance tonight." Myers tacked on an insurance run in the eighth inning with a solo shot off Todd Redmond. Tampa Bay left 12 men on base while Toronto left just one. Notes: Myers has six homers on the season. ... Torontos Kyle Drabek worked the seventh. He has pitched three scoreless innings of relief since his recent callup from triple-A Buffalo. ... Announced attendance was 28,506 and the game took two hours 45 minutes to play. ... The Rays are the only team in the major leagues with a winning record on the road (34-29) and a losing record overall (63-65). ... The Blue Jays fell to 5-13 in August. ... Tolleson ended an 0-for-14 drought with his single. ... Left-hander Mark Buehrle (11-8) is scheduled to start for Toronto on Saturday afternoon. The Rays will counter with right-hander Jeremy Hellickson (1-2). Nicklas Lidstrom Jersey . -- Albert Pujols is thrilled to have a reason to forget about his first two disappointing seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. Custom Detroit Red Wings Jerseys . In question is whether 26-year-old Matt Frattin will be on it. A a€?mediocrea€? training camp, as Carlyle put it earlier this week, has Frattin lingering nervously on the bubble at the end of the exhibition season, pushed out of a likely job by Brandon Kozun, the small, but feisty winger determined to make the NHL for the first time. http://www.redwingshockeyauthentic.com/ted-lindsay-jersey/. Geovany Soto had an RBI for the Cubs. Carlos Silva gave up one run on three hits over six innings to pick up the win. Josh Willingham drove in the lone run for the Nationals, who had just four hits. Dylan Larkin Jersey . -- The Detroit Lions made it crystal clear to Golden Tate that he was their top target in free agency. Gordie Howe Jersey . Others describe it as taking the parrot for a walk.ARLINGTON, Texas -- Nick Foles and Philadelphias high-scoring offence needed a little help from the defence to make sure it was the same old sad ending for the Dallas Cowboys. Foles threw two touchdown passes, one to NFL rushing champion LeSean McCoy, and Brandon Boykin had a game-sealing interception to help the Eagles beat the Cowboys 24-22 in a win-or-go-home game for the NFC East title Sunday night. The Cowboys lost to a division rival with a playoff berth on the line for the third straight year, and nobody can blame Tony Romo for this crushing loss. Kyle Orton, filling in two days after Romo underwent back surgery, had Dallas about 40 yards from field goal range with 1:49 remaining. But he threw behind Miles Austin on the first play, and into the arms of Boykin. "We kept fighting. We believed in each other," said Foles, who was 17 of 26 for 263 yards after throwing for only 80 in a 17-3 loss to Dallas at home. "When the offence was struggling, the defence picked us up." The Eagles (10-6) will host New Orleans in a wild-card game Saturday night, while the Cowboys (8-8) have now dropped a finale to each division rival the past three seasons and have missed the playoffs four straight years. Dallas is 136-136 since the start of the 1997 season. "Its unthinkable, really, to me to be sitting here three years in a row and this game ends up putting us at .500 and this game eliminates us from going to the playoffs," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. McCoy, who had a 3-yard scoring catch, rushed for 131 yards to finish with 1,607 yards and become the first Philadelphia running back to win the rushing title since Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren in 1949. "With the stats and the records, none of that stuff means anything, if you dont win in the end," McCoy said. "Thats the most important thing." The Eagles won the division for the first time since 2010 a year after going 4-12, which led to Andy Reids departure and the hiring of Chip Kelly and his fast-paced offence from Oregon. Dallas trailed 24-16 when Orton threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Dez Bryant. Orton went back to Bryant for the 2-point conversion, but Cary Williams dove to punch the ball away. But the Eagles, with the second-ranked offence in the NFL, couldnt run out the clock against the leagues worst defence. Foles even tried to throw on third down, but had to slide shoort of the first down when nobody was open.dddddddddddd Boykin took care of things from there. "It definitely wasnt our best, but some guys came up with some huge plays when we needed them to," said Connor Barwin, who knocked down a fourth-down pass earlier in the fourth quarter. Romo was the quarterback for losses the past two seasons to the New York Giants and Washington -- and against the Eagles in the same scenario in 2008. The Cowboys were down 10-0 early in the second quarter and never led, but still found a way to make it interesting without Romo and defensive leader Sean Lee, who was out with a sprained neck. Regardless, Dallas is only the third team in NFL history to finish with three straight 8-8 records, according to STATS. And those are in Jason Garretts three full seasons as coach. "You feel a tremendous sense of pride about how the team played, how they fought, how they scratched, how they clawed, how they battled," Garrett said. "But having said that, we didnt get the job done." Orton, who was 30 of 46 for 358 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in his first start in two years, was the first Dallas starter not named Romo in an elimination game since a playoff loss to Carolina with Quincy Carter under centre during the 2003 season. The Cowboys werent shy about throwing without Romo. Trailing by one, Dallas tried to pass on fourth-and-1 from the Philadelphia 40 early in the fourth quarter, and Barwin knocked down Ortons throw to DeMarco Murray, who was open in the flat. That decision came after Garrett called a timeout moments before the Eagles would have been called for a false start on fourth down from the Dallas 1. The defence bailed him out by stuffing Foles on a sneak. After the Cowboys failed fourth-down try, Foles led a steady march to Bryce Browns 6-yard run for an eight-point lead with 6:09 remaining. Notes: Cowboys K Dan Bailey had three field goals and made his last 21 of the season. He was 28 of 30. ... McCoy had 134 yards from scrimmage and finished with 2,146 to break Brian Westbrooks team record of 2,104 from 2007. ... Murray had 51 yards rushing and finished with 1,124, the most for Dallas since Emmitt Smith had 1,203 in 2000. ... Eagles WR DeSean Jackson had 28 yards for No. 2 on the franchises single-season receiving yardage list with 1,332. 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