Before becoming a brief fan favorite in Toronto, David Price was a longtime nemesis of the Blue Jays.
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Tulowitzki has been off to a slow start this season, batting.204 with eight home runs and 23 RBIs.
The Blue Jays third baseman hit two home runs and drove in five runs as Toronto opened a six-game home stand with a 7-5 victory over the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox.
However, Tulowitzki would wind up aggravating the injury in the team’s win, according to Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. The Baltimore Orioles had been spinning out of the division race, being two games back of Boston. “We’re starting to feel better about ourselves, no doubt”.
The 23-year-old avoided a much bigger inning after Marco Hernandez lined into a double play with the bases loaded, thanks to a great heads-up play by Donaldson and Devon Travis.
Once Martin advanced to third following a wild pitch by Kimbrel (0-2), it was left to Travis to drive a groundball to third base, and even though Boston third baseman Travis Shaw relayed a throw to first, Hanley Ramirez couldn’t hang on and Toronto escaped with the win. But Jose Bautista took the exact same pitch-this time at 99-mph-into right field to score Travis and tie the game.
Before the walkoff dramatics, Boston’s veteran slugger David Ortiz looked like he had delivered the game-breaking blow with a go-ahead homer in the top of the ninth off Jays reliever Gavin Floyd. Edwin Encarnacion was hit by a pitch to make it a two-run game and Michael Saunders hit into a double-play to cash in a third run. The Sox were now within a run. That’s when Martin lined a Kimbrel fastball to left-centre field to cash Carrera.
“That’s a good piece of hitting”, Kimbrel said.
“I’ll tell you, when I got off the plane yesterday, the air smelled familiar here”, Lavarnway said.
Of course, a lot of stuff happened before those late-game dramatics, too.
Before the bottom of the ninth, it appeared as though Ortiz had provided all the heroics the Red Sox needed with his 40th career Rogers Centre home run. Garcia held the Nats to two runs on seven hits over seven innings.
“I think every person, player or coach I meet has the opportunity to teach me something”. “We can always find a way to get runners on and if the other team makes a mistake, capitalize on those mistakes”. “I was up a little bit”.
“As soon as I let it go I thought he was out”, Shaw said.
“It just looked like a lot of his fastballs were finding the middle of the plate”.
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetDSI, the Red Sox are -135 money line favorites over the Blue Jays, who have odds of +125 to pull off the upset at home.
Ortiz followed with a double and Stroman issued a four-pitch walk to Ramirez. Stroman then got a line out from Travis Shaw to end the threat.
But with two outs and two of those earlier four hits now in scoring position, Ramirez lined an 83-mph change-up into left field to cash both runners and put the Red Sox ahead 5-3.
The Red Sox said Clay Buchholz (2-5, 6.35 ERA) is being moved to the bullpen and left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez will take Buchholz’s spot in the rotation, starting Tuesday at Baltimore.
Ramirez drove in three runs for the Red Sox (29-20), who have lost three in a row.
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Justin Smoak added a solo shot in the fifth inning, while Ezequiel Carrera scored twice in the victory. The left-hander gave up one hit and struck out one in two-thirds of an inning as he nears a return to the majors. “But I understand that in baseball, it comes down to how you are playing right now and how you can help the team right now”. They’re not going to give up. “We’re looking to just keep this going”.
