Blue Jays run away from Devil Rays, 5-4

Taking a chance on the bases paid off for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Third base coach Brian Butterfield waved Vernon Wells around to score the go-ahead run from first base on Lyle Overbay’s two-out single in the seventh inning, and the Blue Jays defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-4, Saturday for their second victory in a row after a nine-game losing streak.

“As a baserunner, you just try to go hard and give Butter the option of what he wants to do,” Wells said. “He made a great call.”

With the score 4-4 and Wells running on a 3-2 pitch, Overbay lined a single into left-center off Brian Stokes (1-5). Playing the outfield for the first time this season, center fielder B.J. Upton made a weak throw to cutoff man Brendan Harris, whose relay to the plate was too late to get the sliding Wells.

Butterfield said he could tell from Upton’s body language that the throw would go to the cutoff man and not directly to the plate. A downcast Upton said he never expected Wells to try to score.

“I don’t play there much,” Upton said. “It’s my first time out there this season, and it showed.”

Tampa Bay Manager Joe Maddon said the Devil Rays should have known Wells would head toward the plate.

“They got us,” Maddon said. “He’s just got to unload that ball. That ball has got to be unloaded, and it’s got to be back in the infield sooner. He knows that.”