Clay Buchholz lasted just three innings in his start, allowing five runs in a terrible third inning, which was capped off by a grand slam by Troy Tulowitzki.
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The home run makes it the fourth time in Upton’s career that he’s had 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases.
Ortiz did it again on Sunday afternoon, clobbering another low and away changeup from Benoit to erase the Blue Jays lead and put the Red Sox in front of an upside down game that finally ended nearly four hours after it started.
Those two hits (a Devon Travis eighth inning infield single to go with Goins’ sixth inning knock) by the way, were quickly erased by double play ground balls – Travis’ in the sixth and Josh Donaldson’s in the eighth. After retiring the first two batters routinely, Sanchez walked Ortiz and gave up a deep fly ball from Mookie Betts. INF Ryan Goins started at second base Sunday. After taking two out of three games from the Orioles in Baltimore at the end of August, the Jays’ looked poised for yet another post-season appearance this coming October, 2016. Zimmermann (9-6), who recovered from a neck strain, allowed six runs – including three homers – on four hits with three walks. Happ is winless in three starts since his 11-game winning streak ended August 25, but won his only outing against Boston this season. Sanchez entered the game with the second-lowest ERA in the AL (2.92 ERA), trailing only Detroit rookie Michael Fulmer (2.76 ERA). Lester ran into a spot of trouble in the seventh but rallied to record a called third strike against Astros left fielder Colby Rasmus with Yulieski Gurriel and Marwin Gonzalez in scoring position.
Boston shook off the disastrous third and produced more two-out magic to tie the game and bounce Sanchez from the pivotal contest.
Ben Revere singled with one out in the eighth off Luis Garcia (1-1) and took second on a wild pitch by lefty Patrick Shuster, who had come on to face Daniel Murphy.
It took almost four hours, five lead changes, 16 pitching changes, 19 hits, including three home runs by each team, a dozen walks and 19 strikeouts but by the end of the proceedings, the Red Sox had what they came for: a firm grip on first place.
Boston’s bats stayed hot, as Ramirez took Biagini’s first pitch of the afternoon to dead centre, making it 8-7. The Orioles lead the majors with 224 home runs after their four-homer outburst. Holt walked with two out and took third on an errant pickoff attempt.
Buchholz walked Russell Martin with the bases loaded to bring home Donaldson and cut Boston’s lead to 4-2.
It was Upton’s 20th home run of the season, while pitcher JA Happ picked up his 18th victory of the year.
NEW YORK – Mark Teixeira hit a grand slam with two outs in the fourth inning and New York withstood three rain delays to run their winning streak to six games with a victory over Tampa Bay.
Ortiz put Boston up 10-8 with a drive off Joaquin Benoit. Ortiz has 40 career home runs at Rogers Centre, more than any other road ballpark. After allowing eight runs in the first four innings, the Sox had six relievers toss scoreless outings to get to their closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning with a three-run lead. Koji Uehara later came on in relief. Travis broke for third and was initially ruled safe but, on a replay review, he was declared out. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons was ejected for arguing.A wild pitch moved Encarnacion to second with Martin still at the plate.
Toronto finishes the regular season with three games at Fenway Park.
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Friday night’s game against the Boston Red Sox was a microcosm of what’s been going wrong with the Blue Jays this month: inconsistent starting pitching from such starters as Marco Estrada, a lack of timely hits/power outage, and, perhaps most troubling of all, the kind of shaky defence you’d expect in a weekend co-ed softball “fun” tournament.
