Toronto Blue Jays

TORONTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Blue Jays will be looking to carry a rare power surge into the opener of a three-game series with the visiting Boston Red Sox tonight. Toronto used a grand slam by Daulton Varsho and a two-run blast by Ernie Clement to beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-6 on Sunday in the rubber match of a three-game series.

The Blue Jays will complete a six-game homestand with their series against the Red Sox, who set a franchise record with nine stolen bases on Sunday night in a 9-3 drubbing of the Yankees. Boston took two of three games from New York and has won seven of its past 11 overall.

David Hamilton had four of the nine steals for the Red Sox, and he also had two hits, three runs and an RBI.

“(Hamilton) kind of carried the load there,” said Boston left fielder Jarren Duran, who went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases. “It just kind of shows that when we can run the bases like we can, it does a lot for the team and puts us really in a good spot.”

Ceddanne Rafaela went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and one steal and is 11-for-19 (.579) during a five-game hitting streak.

“Like I always say, we’re gonna battle, we’re gonna make mistakes and we’re gonna win games,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “But that was good baseball (Sunday). Expect that from us. We’re gonna push the envelope. We have a bunch of athletes, and it just happens that the three of them are getting on base.”

Perhaps Toronto could take a page out of Boston’s book, as the Blue Jays have not been able to rely on the long ball to generate offense. They have 58 homers this year, tied with the Washington Nationals for third fewest in the majors.

Toronto manager John Schneider is hoping that Sunday’s grand slam gets Varsho and the entire offense going.

“I think I’ve hit him everywhere in the lineup, which isn’t ideal,” Schneider said of Varsho. “We joke about that almost every day, me and him. That’s a huge swing, obviously. Varsho is getting a better and better understanding of where he can handle the ball.”

Still, Toronto knows it has to get creative if it wants to challenge opposing pitching staffs.

“We can obviously hit the long ball, but we’ve also got to play some small ball at times,” Varsho said. “That’s what helps us win a lot of ballgames. Isiah Kiner-Falefa does it really well — I think better than anybody else on our team — being able to play small ball and move runners.”

Right-hander Nick Pivetta (3-4, 3.88 ERA) will try to contain the Blue Jays’ lineup on Monday.

Pivetta faced the Philadelphia Phillies in his last start, getting roughed up for four runs and six hits in four innings on Wednesday. He did not factor into the decision.

In 15 career appearances (13 starts) against Toronto, Pivetta is 2-4 with a 5.35 ERA.

Kikuchi came away with a win against the Milwaukee Brewers last Tuesday, giving up three hits across five scoreless innings. He is 0-2 with a 6.11 ERA in seven career appearances (five starts) vs. Boston.

–Field Level Media

TORONTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Toronto’s Whit Merrifield hit a walk-off infield single with two outs in the 13th inning to lift the host Blue Jays to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday. Merrifield’s chopper to third baseman Rafael Devers against Mauricio Llovera (1-3) scored the designated extra innings runner, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., from third base.

Boston had taken the lead on an RBI single by Pablo Reyes in the top of the 12th, but Toronto’s Bo Bichette tied the game in the bottom half of the inning with a sacrifice fly.

Toronto’s Chad Green (3-0) earned the win, only issuing an intentional walk in the top half of the 13th.

The Blue Jays tied the game with two outs in the ninth thanks to Daulton Varsho’s two-out RBI triple. Red Sox center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela initially came in on the ball, and it ended up going over his head.

The Blue Jays (82-67) have won the first two games of the three-game series. Boston (74-75) has lost three straight games overall.

Devers hit a two-run home run for the Red Sox, while Guerrero hit a solo shot for the Blue Jays.

Toronto right-hander Chris Bassitt allowed two runs, four hits and three walks with five strikeouts in seven innings.

Boston left-hander Chris Sale allowed one run, two hits and two walks in six-plus innings. He struck out 10.

Wilyer Abreu led off the sixth with a walk and stole second. Devers then hit his 32nd homer of the season.

Guerrero led off the bottom of the seventh with his 24th homer of the season, recording his third consecutive game with a home run.

Josh Winckowski replaced Sale following Guerrero’s long ball and walked three batters to load the bases with two outs. Brennan Bernardino came on in relief to retire pinch hitter Ernie Clement.

Boston’s John Schreiber allowed a one-out single to pinch hitter Cavan Biggio in the ninth, and Biggio took second on a wild pitch. One out later, Varsho ripped his game-tying triple to center.

Plate umpire Jordan Baker left the game following the eighth inning after being hit by two foul balls in the contest.

–Field Level Media

TORONTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Meet a new boss, same as the old boss?

That could be the Boston Red Sox mantra as they plod towards the end of the 2023 season.

Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a three-run home run, Jose Berrios pitched seven strong innings and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Boston Red Sox 3-0 Friday night in the opener of a three-game series.

The Blue Jays (81-67) ended a four-game losing streak and are 4-4 on a 10-game homestand. They were coming off a four-game sweep by the Texas Rangers.

The Red Sox (74-74) were coming off a split of a doubleheader against the visiting New York Yankees on Thursday. Justin Turner hit two doubles to lead the Boston offense.

Berrios (11-10) allowed five hits and no walks while striking out eight.

Boston right-hander Brayan Bello (12-9) gave up the three-run homer to Guerrero, along with three other hits and one walk in six innings, He had a career-best 10 strikeouts.

Toronto took a 3-0 lead in the third. Alejandro Kirk led off the inning with a check-swing double down the right field line. Kirk was out at third on Daulton Varsho’s grounder to shortstop. Bo Bichette walked with two outs and Guerrero hit his 23rd home run of the season on a blast to left-center field.

Berrios retired 10 straight before Turner doubled for the second time with two outs in the sixth. Alex Verdugo struck out to end the inning.

Masataka Yoshida led off the top of the seventh with a single. He was out at second on Wilyer Abreu’s grounder to first. Berrios ended the inning with a strikeout and a flyout.

Jordan Hicks replaced Berrios and pitched a perfect eighth with one strikeout.

Jordan Romano pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning with two strikeouts to record his 35th save of the season.

Notes: Berrios wore No. 21 in honor of Roberto Clemente, who was celebrated across baseball Friday.

TORONTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – A day after their chief baseball officer was fired, the Boston Red Sox will pay a visit to the Toronto Blue Jays tonight, who are reeling after being swept in a four-game series.

The Red Sox (74-73) enter the three-game series against the Blue Jays (80-67) with a 7-3 advantage in the season series.

Before splitting a doubleheader with the visiting New York Yankees on Thursday, the Red Sox let Chaim Bloom go after he spent nearly four years as the head of their front office.

The Red Sox won the opener 5-0 and lost the second game 8-5.

“Obviously it’s a decision that ownership made,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “They decided to go this route. We worked together all these years and it’s never easy to hear that. It’s never easy.”

The Red Sox went 267-262 during Bloom’s tenure, finishing last in the American League East in 2020 and 2022 and sitting tied for last this year.

The Blue Jays, meanwhile, lost 9-2 to the visiting Texas Rangers on Thursday to drop all four games of a crucial series.

The Toronto fans were booing for the second game in a row as the Blue Jays were held to four hits. A two-run home run by struggling Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the first inning was all the offense they could muster.

In the race for the final two American League wild-card spots, the Blue Jays fell to 2 1/2 games behind the Rangers (82-64) and 1 1/2 games behind the Seattle Mariners (81-65).

Toronto is 3-4 on a 10-game homestand that ends with the series against Boston.

The Blue Jays are scheduled to start right-hander Jose Berrios (10-10, 3.63 ERA) on Friday. He is 2-6 with a 4.34 ERA in 13 career starts against the Red Sox, including a 1-1 mark with a 6.35 ERA in three starts this year.

Boston is scheduled to start right-hander Brayan Bello (12-8, 3.68) in the opener. He is 1-2 with a 6.50 ERA in four career starts against the Blue Jays. In his lone start against Toronto this year, he allowed four runs (two earned) in five innings during a home win on May 4.

The Blue Jays will hope to bounce back after getting outscored 35-9 by the Rangers in the four-game set.

“This series we played terrible, really, in all facets,” Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman said. “Our pitching staff gave up a lot of runs, and we didn’t score many runs.”

Gausman allowed four runs on six hits and matched his career high by issuing six walks in 4 2/3 innings on Thursday.

“We’re as pissed as anybody. We’re mad,” Gausman said. “We’re all competitors, we don’t like what happened in this series. We’ve got a bad taste in our mouth. But we can’t do anything right now but keep going.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider added, “We need to hit, we need to pitch better, limit walks. You take the lead in the first inning and you’ve got to continue to find a way to score runs.

“Not a great series, that’s not our best game by any stretch of the imagination.”

The Blue Jays reinstated third baseman Matt Chapman from the injured list on Thursday and optioned outfielder Nathan Lukes to Triple-A Buffalo. Chapman, who had been out since Aug. 28 due to a sprained right middle finger, went 0-for-3 with a walk.

–Field Level Media

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – On July 26, when the Boston Red Sox finished a two-game sweep of the Major League Baseball-leading Atlanta Braves, the season looked promising. Today, as the Toronto Blue Jays finished-off a three-game sweep of the Sox with an 13-1 thrashing of the home team, the entire season looks like a Chris Murphy pitch, soaring into the gutter on Landsdowne Street.

Instead of a four-game winning streak and momentum at the end of July, the Red Sox are now buried in the cellar of the American League East.

The Blue Jays scored first in the game, putting up four runs in the third inning. The rally started with a well executed bunt by Jays 1B Brandon Belt, followed by the first of three consecutive doubles off of the left-handed Red Sox reliever, Murphy.

DH George Springer hit his double to right center field, putting men of second and third with one out. Toronto third baseman Matt Chapman knocked in Bell and Springer with his double. Right fielder Cavan Biggio followed with the third double, scoring Chapman.

Toronto center fielder Kevin Kiermaier earned an RBI when he singled to left, scoring Biggio and spotting the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead. Kiermaier later left the game after making a spectacular defensive play against the center-field wall, but injuring his right arm/elbow in wither the catch or the throw back to the infield.

Toronto rookie second baseman Davis Schneider hit his second home run of the three-game series, ousting a ball over the famed Green Monster in the left field side of Fenway Park. The ball carried all the way to Landsdowne Street and was clocked at 107.5 mph on a 425-foot journey towards the CITGO sign.

The Blue Jays’ fifth inning produced another five runs as the club batted around. The outburst began with a walk to Biggio and a hit batter as Murphy clipped Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk’s hand. Two singles (Kiermaier and SS Paul DeJong), then another walk and another hit batsman and the Jays paraded base runner after base runner across Fenway’s home plate.

Murphy departed after 2.1 innings pitched with seven hits allowed, six earned runs, two walks with two strike-outs.

Boston’s rookie first baseman, Tristan Casas, put the Red Sox on the scoreboard in the fourth with a first-pitch, lead-off homer to the right field bleachers. It was Casas’ 17th home run of the season.

Schneider went 4-for-5 with a hit by pitch and the home run in the 4th inning. He had four RBI and scored once.

Bernardino (1-1) opened for the Red Sox, pitching only the first inning and allowing two hits but striking out two Blue Jays before giving way to Murphy.

Chris Bassitt (11-6) earned the win with his seven IP, allowing seven hits but only one run. He walked three Red Sox and struck-out six for his 11th win of the season.

Murphy (1-1) took the loss for Boston.

Boston shortstop Pablo Reyes pitched the ninth inning for his shellshocked club. He allowed one hit and walked two batters but escaped with no runs allowed and three left on base for Toronto.

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report by Field Level Media) – The Boston Red Sox will try to put a bad day behind them and salvage the finale of a three-game series with the visiting Toronto Blue Jays this afternoon.

Boston’s bad day started when outfielder Alex Verdugo was scratched from the lineup with no explanation. Neither Red Sox manager Alex Cora nor Verdugo, who never got into the game, commented on the reason.

The day ended when Reese McGuire, who had singled as a pinch hitter, was doubled off second base after a flyout to the wall in left-center field to cut a ninth-inning rally short in the Blue Jays’ 5-4 victory.

“This is probably one of my worst days here in this organization,” Cora said after the game.

He said that Verdugo’s benching was a “manager’s decision.”

“I’m just taking care of the 26 guys (on the roster), and he wasn’t gonna play,” Cora said.

Cora has benched Verdugo for a lack of hustle in the past.

“That was a different situation,” Cora said. “I think (Saturday), we took a step back as a team. We have to make sure everybody’s available every single day here for us to get to wherever we’re going to go. And that wasn’t the case. And as a manager, I’ve got to take charge of this, and I decided he wasn’t going to play.”

“Just a manager’s decision,” Verdugo said. “We’re gonna leave it at that.”

When asked if he arrived to Fenway Park on time on Saturday, Verdugo said he did.

The Red Sox won the first seven meetings with the Blue Jays this season and now have lost two straight to a team they are chasing for an American League wild-card spot.

Toronto is scheduled to start right-hander Chris Bassitt (10-6, 4.00 ERA) on Sunday. Bassitt has faced the Red Sox once in his career, in 2021, when he allowed two runs and three hits with 10 strikeouts in seven innings.

The Red Sox are expected to start left-hander Brennan Bernardino (1-1, 2.72). Bernardino, who will be making his sixth start of the season, is 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA in four relief appearances against Toronto in his career.

McGuire’s baserunning mistake allowed Erik Swanson to earn his fourth save.

TORONTO – (Staff and Wire Service Report from Field Level Media) – Alex Verdugo led off the ninth inning with a tie-breaking home run and the visiting Boston Red Sox completed a three-game sweep with a 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon.

Jarren Duran tied a Red Sox club record with four doubles and finished 5-for-5 with three runs scored.

The Red Sox have won all seven games between the teams this season.

Brandon Belt hit two solo home runs for Toronto, which was held to six hits.

Boston right-hander Garrett Whitlock (right elbow tightness) allowed one run before being removed after the first inning.

Toronto right-hander Kevin Gausman allowed two runs, five hits and one walk while striking out seven in five innings.

Duran led off the game with a bloop double to left and scored on a two-out single by Rafael Devers.

Toronto tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the first on Belt’s fifth homer of the season.

After Gausman struck out five in a row, Duran doubled to right with one out in the third and scored on a two-out single by Devers, who finished 3-for-3 with two walks.

Toronto took the lead in the bottom of the third. Kevin Kiermaier hit a one-out single against Brennan Bernardino, who was replaced by Kaleb Ort. George Springer singled, and after a double steal, Bo Bichette hit a two-run single to right. Verdugo threw out Bichette trying for a double.

Belt hit his sixth homer of the season against Nick Pivetta with one out in the sixth to make it 4-2 Toronto.

Duran led off the seventh with his fourth double, a shot high off the left-field wall against Erik Swanson. Justin Turner singled to drive in Duran. Turner was running on the play when Verdugo chopped a groundout to third and continued to third, coming home on a throwing error by first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to tie the game at 4-4.

After Pivetta completed four innings of one-run ball, Chris Martin (2-1) took over and pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth.

Verdugo hit his sixth home run of the season on the first pitch of the ninth off Toronto closer Jordan Romano (3-4) for the decisive run.

Boston’s Joe Jacques pitched a perfect bottom of the ninth to earn his first career save.

TORONTO – Boston’s 3B Rafael Devers hit a two-run home run and had three RBIs in a three-hit game as the visiting Red Sox defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-6. Boston’s Justin Turner added a solo homer and an RBI double for the Red Sox, who have won the first two games of the three-game series. Boston is 6-0 against Toronto this season.

Matt Chapman had a two-run homer for the Blue Jays while George Springer and Bo Bichette added solo home runs.

The game ended when Bichette was thrown out at home by right fielder Alex Verdugo. Bichette was trying to score the tying run on Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s single, which had already plated Springer.

Toronto left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (7-3) allowed five runs, seven hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Boston right-hander Kutter Crawford (3-4) allowed two runs, three hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings.

Springer led off the home half of the first with his 12th home run of the season.

Boston scored twice in the third. Turner singled with one out and Devers hit a 3-2 fastball to left center for his 20th homer of the season.

Bichette tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the third with his 15th homer of the season.

Boston regained the lead in the fifth. Rob Refsnyder led off with a single and scored on Turner’s double. Devers followed with an RBI single and took second on the throw home. Trevor Richards replaced Kikuchi and allowed Masataka Yoshida’s run-scoring single.

Christian Arroyo led off the Boston sixth with a single, took third on Refsnyder’s double and scored on Verdugo’s sacrifice fly. Nate Pearson then replaced Richards.

Josh Winckowski allowed Chapman’s leadoff double in the Toronto seventh before Danny Jansen hit an infield single. With runners at second and third and two outs, Winckowski’s errant pickoff throw to second resulted in a run.

Winckowski walked Guerrero with two outs in the eighth and allowed Chapman’s 11th homer of the season, which pulled the Blue Jays within 6-5.

Turner led off the ninth with his 13th homer of the season. It came against Erik Swanson.

Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen allowed Springer’s single and Bichette’s double ahead of Guerrero’s single that nearly tied the game until Verdugo’s pinpoint throw finished off the Jays.

–Field Level Media