The meeting got rave reviews.
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Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz (34) celebrates his three-run homer in the 6th inning with teammate Dustin Pedroia (15) during American League baseball action against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto on Sunday, September 11, 2016. “It’s something I’ll never forget”.
Toronto stopped a four-game losing streak and avoided matching its longest skid this season. The two clubs combined to use 18 pitches. Brandon Finnegan struck out seven over five innings as Cincinnati dropped the Pirates six games out of a postseason slot. The Red Sox have just 10 home games remaining in the regular season, so there remains a chance that Rory will be the last person to pick up a regular-season home run hit by David Ortiz in Fenway Park. “Definitely in a series like this you like to get off to a good start early in the ballgame. It just wasn’t our day”.
Kluber (16-9) gave up an unearned run and four hits while passing the 200-strikeout mark for the third straight season. “I thought I was getting a different menu”. That gave Holt more than enough time to score.
“We’re not even thinking about October”, said Red Sox manager John Farrell. We were a swing of the bat away.
They couldn’t pitch, a narrative that has been nibbling for a while now.
The home run was the 534th for Ortiz, a 10-time All-Star and Red Sox icon known as “Big Papi” who has said he will retire after this season, his 20th in the big leagues. At the same time, Boston has won seven of its past 10 and Baltimore six of its past 10, including a 3-1 win over Detroit on Sunday. As Ortiz trotted around the bases and polite applause surprisingly rang out from the stands for the soon-to-be retiring slugger, who was likely playing his last game in Toronto. On the next pitch, Tulowitzki blasted a no-doubt home run over the left-field wall, bringing the 47,816 in attendance at Rogers Centre to their feet with chants of “TU-LO!” and giving Toronto its first lead of the game, 6-4. Everything might just come down to the wire if the six teams keep hanging in there. Boston’s bullpen was the deciding factor in this game, as they only gave up two runs the rest of the game.
San Diego’s Wil Myers, a Thomasville native who starred at Wesleyan Christian Academy, went 1 for 3 with a triple, RBI and run scored. Unfortunately, the inning had one of the most frustrating endings possible, with Brock Holt attempting a straight steal of home with Bradley at the plate and Sandy Leon at first. “I’m glad we had it”. “We know we need it and we needed to get everybody together and express whatever you need to say and let it go and come back ready”.
There’s still questions also about this team’s intangibles and ability to make winning plays in key situations, that along with winning on the road are extremely important to winning a World Series. “It was just nice to get everyone together and get back on the same page”. The Red Sox perform similarly when they hit one or more homers with a 66-42 record.
Left-hander Rich Hill was removed after pitching seven flawless innings as Los Angeles held Miami to two hits. It was his 24th homer of the season.
Young fouled out to right and Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to right that Bautista hauled in at the wall to cut the Toronto lead to 3-2. Martin aggravated the injury in Wednesday’s loss at NY and was replaced by a pinch-hitter in the ninth. Abad wasn’t able to do that when he allowed Melvin Upton Jr.to reach and then it was on to Matt Barnes to finish off the inning. Thankfully, he got a quick ground ball from Kevin Pillar to end the threat.
The situation escalated when Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki joined the fray with some choice words for Souza.
Joe Kelly pitched the bottom of the eighth for Boston, allowing only a walk.
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Blue Jays: C Russell Martin (left knee) was held out of the lineup.
