Toronto Blue Jays

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – If Major League Baseball would determine series wins by cumulative score, the Boston Red Sox would’ve defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 18-15. That’s not the way it works.

In the rubber game of their three game series played under bright sunshine at Fenway Park on Sunday, Toronto beat Boston, 5-3. Red Sox starter Walker Buehler took his sixth loss of the season, largely because he let up back-to-back home runs in the top of the first inning.

Blue Jays right fielder Addison Barger, batting second, took Buehler long with a liner to right field to make it 1-0. Batting third, slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. plopped a long drive into the second row of fans in the Green Monster seats in left field to make it 2-0, Toronto.

In the second inning, Boston was able to fight back and tie the game, utilizing a solo home run by catcher Carlos Narvaez and a double by centerfielder Ceddanne Rafaela who knocked in shortstop Trevor Story. Story had singled and then stole second base.

The Jays doomed Buehler in the visitor’s fourth inning, as the Boston starter allowed three walks sprinkled through an infield hit by centerfielder Nathan Lukes and a run-scoring single to right field by second baseman Andres Gimenez which scored Lukes.

Buehler was relieved in the fifth inning, but reliever Zack Kelly allowed a Lukes singled to score veteran shortstop Bo Bichette who had doubled off Kelly to lead off the inning.

The series had a very strange vibe, as Toronto opened the three-game set with a 9-0 victory on Friday night only to lose 15-1 on Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday, Jays reliever Yariel Rodriguez (2-0) earned the victory while Buehler’s record dropped to (5-6). Toronto closer Jeff Hoffman earned his 18th save of the season.

Boston fell to 13-13-1 in season series, 6-6-1 at home. Boston has allowed 5+ runs for the seventh time in the last 11 games, dating back to June 17. Boston has lost seven of their last eight , dating back to June 21. Previously, they won 10 of 12 games.

For the Red Sox, it’s on to Cincinnati as the Reds visit Fenway for a three-game set where the Sox will memorialize their 1975 American League title, but World Series loss to the Reds in one of the great Fall classics of our time.

Notes:

• Reliever Zack Kelly left the game after facing only one batter in the sixth inning, suffering from right oblique tightness.
• Toronto’s back-to-back HRs today marked the third time they hit back-to-backs this season.
• Toronto is 29-18 (.617) since May 8, trailing only AL clubs Tampa Bay and Houston during that span.

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Wilyer Abreu hit a three-run home run and SP Lucas Giolito pitched seven strong innings as the Red Sox ended a six-game losing streak by routing the visiting Toronto Blue Jays 15-1 Saturday.

Abreu’s home run came against Toronto starting pitcher Chris Bassitt in the bottom of the first inning. It was his 14th home run of the season.

Giolito (4-1) gave up one run (unearned) on six hits in seven innings. He struck out five.

TORONTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet aims to improve on his last start when he faces the host Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series.

The left-hander allowed four runs, five hits and a career-high five walks in five innings on Thursday in a 4-3 home loss to the Seattle Mariners.

Crochet took responsibility for the loss after the Mariners touched him for two runs in each of the first two innings.

“The game was the first two innings that I pitched,” he said. “That was really what lost us the game.”

The Blue Jays can look forward to Crochet reverting to a power pitcher from the beginning on Tuesday. He was trying to be a little too fine in the early innings against the Mariners.

“It became something where I was trying to pitch instead of just throwing,” he said after the start. “Once I started getting back to my roots and just being a power pitcher later in the game, the walks were still there, but I was at least able to get guys out.”

This will be the second time this season that Crochet (2-2, 1.95 ERA) will face the Blue Jays. He took his first loss of the season against them at Fenway Park on April 8 when he allowed four runs (one earned), five hits and four walks in 5 2/3 innings. In four career outings (two starts) against Toronto, he is 2-1 with a 0.66 ERA in 13 2/3 innings.

He is expected to be opposed by right-hander Bowden Francis (2-3, 3.58) on Tuesday. Francis has not faced the Red Sox this season, but he has had success against them. He is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings over in five career games (two starts) against Boston.

The Red Sox are coming off a 13-3 road victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday. Kristian Campbell was 2-for-2 with four runs, a double, three walks, two RBIs and a stolen base in what manager Alex Cora described as “all-around probably one of his best, if not the best, game of the season.”

Campbell helped Boston take two of three from Cleveland.

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Toronto’s George Springer homered and Easton Lucas pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings to help the visiting Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Boston Red Sox 6-1 on Tuesday in the second game of a four-game series.

The game was scoreless until Springer hit a solo home run against Garrett Crochet (1-1) in the top of the sixth inning. It was his second home run of the season.

The Blue Jays added three more runs in the sixth, all three unearned as Boston made a pair of two-out throwing errors.

Lucas (2-0) limited Boston to three hits. He struck out eight and walked one.

Crochet, who signed a six-year, $170 million contract extension last week, made his first start at Fenway Park since he joined the Red Sox in an offseason trade with the Chicago White Sox. He allowed four runs (one earned) on five hits in 5 2/3 innings, with four walks and five strikeouts.

Bo Bichette collected three hits and drove in three runs for the Blue Jays, who beat Boston 6-2 on Monday. Springer and Tyler Heineman each had two hits.

After David Schneider reached first on an Alex Bregman throwing error and Myles Straw walked, Toronto extended its lead to 2-0 when Heineman hit an infield single and Schneider scored on second baseman Kristian Campbell’s error on the throw to first. Bichette followed with a two-run single to center that drove in Heineman and Straw to make it 4-0.

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – With their American League playoff hopes continuing to fade like the lazy days of Summer turning to the chilly evenings of September, the Boston Red Sox will look to bounce back from a series-opening, day-night sweep when they continue a rare five-game set against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays tonight.

Much-needed wins were not in the cards for the Red Sox on Monday, as 4-1 and 7-3 losses dropped them to 5 1/2 games back of Minnesota, which currently holds the third and final wild-card spot.

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had two doubles and four RBIs while George Springer homered to help the visiting Blue Jays past the Boston Red Sox 9-4 on Tuesday. The Blue Jays scored all nine of their runs over the third and fourth innings, highlighted by an initial seven-run scoring frame that erased an early 2-0 Red Sox lead.

Blue Jays centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier also posted a three-hit game, scoring two runs and driving in another for Toronto. The support was more than enough for starter Kevin Gausman (6-6), whose six innings of work included five strikeouts and helped Toronto snap a seven-game skid.

Rafael Devers (2-for-4) and Tyler O’Neill each homered for the Red Sox, who were held to five hits while losing for just the second time in the past 10 games.

Brayan Bello (7-5) was roughed up for seven runs on five hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings. Josh Winckowski covered all but two outs the rest of the way, striking out a career-high eight over six innings of relief.

After a 1-2-3 start against Gausman, the Red Sox struck for a pair of quick runs in the second. Devers opened the scoring with a towering homer out to deep right center, his 16th homer of the season. O’Neill dropped a ball into shallow right over a lunging Guerrero’s glove at first base to continue the inning. Masataka Yoshida then lined a double to right and added to Boston’s lead at 2-0.

The Blue Jays wasted little time tying the game and more, tagging Bello for a seven-run inning in just a span of eight batters. Kiermaier knocked an RBI single off the glove of Enmanuel Valdez at second, and right fielder Wilyer Abreu’s relay throw sailed and led to the second run. After back-to-back walks, Guerrero crushed a go-ahead, two-run double into the centerfield triangle before a Turner grounder and two-run Springer homer into the Red Sox bullpen to bring Toronto in full command at 7-2. It was Springer’s sixth homer of the season.

The Toronto lead ballooned to 9-2 against the bullpen on Guerrero’s two-run double that bounced into the left-field corner and a subsequent throwing error. Devers’ fan-interfered double to center set up another RBI opportunity for Boston in the sixth, and O’Neill crushed a two-run homer out to deep right, his 16th homer of the season.

–Field Level Media

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Reports) – A night after an exhilarating walk-off victory in the series opener, the Boston Red Sox will look for their fourth consecutive win when they oppose the visiting Toronto Blue Jays tonight.

Jarren Duran (3-for-5) hit a single on Monday to score Ceddanne Rafaela with the game-winning run for the Red Sox, who trailed 6-2 after seven innings but came back for their eighth win in nine games.

Three of Boston’s wins in that stretch came during a series sweep at Toronto early last week.

Rafael Devers (3-for-4 on Monday) and David Hamilton each homered and Romy Gonzalez hit a game-tying, pinch-hit, two-run single to help the Red Sox prevail with the NBA champion Boston Celtics in attendance.

“It was just amazing,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve never really been a part of something like this, and hopefully we can just keep this thing rolling.”

Duran has hit safely in a career-high 14 consecutive games.

The Tuesday pitching matchup is a rematch from the finale at Toronto last week. Red Sox right-hander Brayan Bello (7-4, 4.83 ERA) will oppose Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman (5-6, 4.24).

Bello pitched six innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts in Boston’s 7-3 win on Wednesday.

“When you’ve got 97-98 (mph) with movement, a good changeup and a good slider, we want our guys to keep pounding the strike zone and he did,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said after Bello’s latest outing. “(The starting pitchers) worked hard (last) week just controlling the counts and pounding the strike zone, and he executed the plan.”

TORONTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Enmanuel Valdez and Jarren Duran hit solo home runs and visiting Boston defeated the Blue Jays, 7-3. Duran also had an RBI single to help the Red Sox sweep the three-game series and extend their winning streak to five games.

Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman (5-6) allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits and three walks while striking out four in 5 2/3 innings.

TORONTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela had three hits, including the go-ahead, two-out single in the eighth inning, and the visiting Red Sox defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 on Tuesday.

Tyler O’Neill’s home run to center leading off the eighth tied the game for the Red Sox, who have won the first two games of the three-game series and four straight overall.

Toronto right-hander Chris Bassitt allowed two runs, seven hits and two walks while striking out six in six innings.

Boston right-hander Tanner Houck gave up three runs (two earned), six hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings. He fanned five.

The Red Sox opened the scoring in the second inning. O’Neill led off with a double to left and scored on Dominic Smith’s two-out bloop single to center.

Toronto took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning. Justin Turner and Addison Barger began the frame with singles, and both scored on Ernie Clement’s two-out double.

Boston tied the game in the sixth. Rafael Devers doubled to left-center with one out and scored on a two-out single to center by Masataka Yoshida.

Toronto regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Daulton Varsho reached first on an error and stole second. Turner walked. Alejandro Kirk’s one-out grounder to third forced Varsho before Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a soft RBI single past first base. Zack Kelly (1-0) replaced Houck, escaped the jam and pitched 1 1/3 innings.

Nate Pearson took over from Bassitt and allowed a double and a single in the seventh before being replaced with two outs by Brendon Little (0-1), who struck out Devers to end the threat.

O’Neill tied the game when he opened the eighth against Little with his 15th homer of the season and his third of the series. Smith singled with two outs, prompting Toronto to replace Little with Chad Green. Pinch runner David Hamilton then stole second and scored on Rafaela’s single to left.

Kenley Jansen pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his 13th save of the season and fourth in seven days.

Toronto put shortstop Bo Bichette (right calf strain) on the injured list Tuesday and recalled infielder Orelvis Martinez from Triple-A Buffalo. Boston reinstated right-hander Chris Martin (anxiety) from the IL and optioned right-hander Cooper Criswell to Triple-A Worcester.

–Field Level Media