BOSTON – Toronto’s Dylan Cease tossed five scoreless innings and the visiting Blue Jays received home runs from Andres Gimenez, Davis Schneider and George Springer en route to a 6-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.
Cease (4-3) limited Boston to four hits, walked four and struck out seven. He threw 108 pitches. Louis Varland recorded the final four outs and earned his 13th save.
Schneider and Gimenez hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth, then Springer drove in two in the ninth with his 300th career homer. Springer had three RBIs in the win.
Jarren Duran accounted for Boston’s run by hitting a solo home run against Tommy Nance in the eighth. Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Connor Wong each collected two hits for the Red Sox, who were 1 of 12 with runners in scoring position. Willson Contreras struck out four times.
Gimenez, who missed Sunday’s game against the New York Yankees with a sore wrist, scored the game’s first run in the third inning. He doubled, moved to third when Myles Straw hit a fly ball to right and scored on Springer’s sacrifice fly.
The home runs by Gimenez and Schneider in the fifth both came against Boston starter Payton Tolle and stretched Toronto’s lead to 3-0.
Tolle (3-4) also was pulled after five innings. He allowed three runs on four hits, walked two and struck out six.
Toronto made it 4-0 in the sixth. Kazuma Okamoto walked, took third on a Nathan Lukes single and scored when Schneider doubled.
Duran’s home run cut Toronto’s lead to 4-1 in the eighth. Boston brought the tying run to the plate, but Varland entered and struck out pinch hitter Mickey Gasper to end the inning.
The loss dropped the Red Sox’ record to 9-30 when their opponent scores first.
–Field Level Media