Brock Holt hit a grand slam and drove in five runs as the Boston Red Sox rallied from a 7-2 deficit, taking advantage of the Toronto bullpen to defeat the Blue Jays 8-7 in their home opener Friday night. Donaldson hit safely in each of the first four games and homered twice.2. The last of those eight wins came against Toronto on September 9, when Kelly scattered six hits and one run over 5 2/3 innings while striking out five.Stroman was impressive enough down the stretch last season to earn ace status on the staff and cruised through eight innings while allowing one run against the Rays on opening day.
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Even after the pucked dropped, the love for the team didn’t end: the arena broke out in a Blue Jays chant.
Craig Kimbrel shut the door in the ninth inning to pick up his first save as the Red Sox closer.
Matt Barnes (1-0) got the win while Drew Storen (0-1) took the loss.
Toronto, which is in the midst of a two-game losing streak, hasn’t lost three in a row since before the All-Star break last season; a three-game losing streak between July 8 and 10, 2015. Herd officials went to spring training in Dunedin, Fla., last month to meet with Jays officials and first-year Toronto President Mark Shapiro said Friday he’s looking forward to a long run in Buffalo. Once again, the Red Sox cashed in a run with a two-out rally, as David Ortiz lined a double to deep centre and scored Bogaerts all the way from first. Things quickly turned ugly for the home side as Holt punished the Jays with a line-drive grand slam to right field.
The reigning American League MVP was taken out of Wednesday’s game in the seventh inning in Tampa because of the injury and did participate in Thursday’s on-field workouts at Rogers Centre. In the prior two seasons the Red Sox started 1-1, they won the third game of the season.
The game came with all the home opener day trappings, including a roped-off passageway leading from the Blue Jays dugout through which the players in the starting lineup passed to make their way onto the field for the pregame festivities.
It was a nice touch as Bell was the only other Blue Jay in franchise history to walk off with the award, in 1987.
Also, eager to follow Vlad Guerrero Jr. and 20-year-old Richard Urena’s fourth year of minor league prep. Urena hit a homer in game one yesterday for Dunedin.
Kevin Pillar only has four hits in his first 18 at bats this season as he tries to lockdown the leadoff role. Darwin Barney tried to start a two-out rally with an infield single, but a nice play by Shaw soon ended the inning.
“There’s a different excitement about the team”, Gibbons said before the game.
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“We don’t get distracted by any of the outside noise”.
