NO WEB

Jeremy Hellickson pitched seven strong innings and rookie Wil Myers homered in his home debut, helping the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Blue Jays 4-1 on Monday night to end Toronto's 11-game winning streak.

Myers homered in his first at-bat at Tropicana Field and received a standing ovation from a crowd of 11,407 getting its initial close-up view of the key acquisition in the offseason trade that sent pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis to Kansas City for the power-hitting right fielder and other prospects.

Myers' drive to center off Esmil Rogers (3-3) was sandwiched between homers by James Loney and Sam Fuld as Tampa Bay went deep three times within a span of eight pitches in the second inning. Luke Scott added a bloop RBI double to make it 4-0 in the third, and that was all the support Hellickson needed.

Riding their longest winning streak in almost 15 years, the Toronto Blue Jays are getting ready to welcome four-time All-Star Jose Reyes back to the lineup.

Not that anyone's rushing him, mind you.

That's a big change from two weeks ago, when the moribund Blue Jays were desperate for the return of Reyes, a dynamic shortstop and former NL batting champion who's been sidelined since early April with a severely sprained left ankle.

"We haven't decided anything yet," manager John Gibbons said Sunday in response to a question about the timing of Reyes' return. "It's kind of a day-to-day thing. You want to bring him back to screw it up?"

No one wants to mess with the winning chemistry Toronto is enjoying right now -- not even in the case of Reyes. With a franchise record-tying 11 straight wins entering last night's game against the Rays, the Jays are on the best streak by any big-league team since Detroit won 12 in a row in 2011.

Behind exceptional starting pitching, timely hitting and an all-but-untouchable bullpen, Toronto has won 15 of its past 18, outscoring opponents 102-52 in that span.

"I've been waiting for this since the season started," Edwin Encarnacion said after hitting his 21st homer and driving in four runs in Sunday's 13-5 rout of Baltimore. "I believe in this team so I knew things had to change, things had to become good for us. That's the way right now and we enjoy it, enjoy the moment. I'm not surprised by this. I know this team is good and I know we can do it."

Belief was harder to come by when Reyes' lengthy absence and a host of other problems threatened to derail a highly anticipated season for the Jays, who haven't made the playoffs since winning back-to-back World Series titles in 1992-93.

Even before spring training, Toronto was pegged as a favorite for the Fall Classic after an offseason overhaul that added Reyes, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle in a massive trade with Miami and NL Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey in a deal with the Mets.

But the Blue Jays stumbled to a 10-21 start and were stuck nine games below .500 (27-36) after losing to the Chicago White Sox on June 10.

Eleven wins later, Toronto found itself above .500 for the first time in 2013 and with a new lease on life in the hyper-competitive AL East, where all five teams boast winning records.

"It was a battle early on, we all know that," Gibbons said. "We always figured it was just a matter of time before we started playing better, and it's lasted longer than we expected."