Tied up with the Boston Red Sox 1-1 in a three game weekend series, the Toronto Blue Jays hope desperately that they can top their Division foe today in order to keep momentum headed into October.
Advertisement
Boston reached the board in the fourth inning, as an infield hit by Bogaerts proceeded a horrific throwing error by Buehrle on a groundout by Ortiz, allowing Bogaerts to score all the way from first to cut the deficit to 3-1.
“He could get two and a half (starts)”, Gibbons said.
In the eighth, Pablo Sandoval came home on Bradley’s sacrifice fly after reaching on a fielding error by reliever Brett Cecil. “But they can’t all do it if we get in. That’s exactly what we’re all about here in Boston”.
I’m listening to “Hotline Bling” as I write this and I thought it would be a disservice not to at least mention our northern neighbor Drake, so here it is: any city that brought us that man must have done something right. The Blue Jays now host the Yankees in a three-game series.
For a Red Sox team fighting just to claw its way out of the cellar, it was as close to postseason baseball as it will experience – and it might have been its most dramatic win of the season.
“It’s tough when you see guys you haven’t seen all year”, Navarro said. “We’re anxious to hear what the doctor is going to report”.
Hill gave up three runs and seven hits in seven innings.
“I bet that’s the first time it’s ever happened in his career”, said manager John Gibbons.
His success has been welcome for the Red Sox who inserted him into the rotation to give each starter (Eduardo Rodriguez, in particular) another day in between starts. “It’s fun playing behind him, that’s for sure”. Pillar made an impressive throw to try to catch Sandoval out at home, but the ball skidded on the hop to Navarro and bounced away. “But the good thing is, we’re about to play the Yankees next, and if we can take that series from them, we’ll be in pretty good shape”. He entered the game on a streak of 25 1/3 innings without allowing a run. It’s the most by any team since the 2006 Yankees had 44 homers of three runs or more. Noe Ramirez pitched an inning of scoreless relief before Robbie Ross Jr. came in for the save. S.Leon to second. Betts struck out. Dioner Navarro hit a two-run home run to left field, and three singles later Toronto had a 3-0 lead.
Kevin Pillar kept the rally alive after Russell Martin struck out, hitting an RBI single to shallow right field, plating Bautista for a 4-2 Toronto lead.
First baseman Travis Shaw went 3-for-4 for Boston, with a single in the fifth inning that drove in two runners and tied the game at 3-3.
Ortiz hit a grounder to the right side and was out at first with Buehrle covering the bag.
It’s still premature to look ahead given that potential opponents, home-field advantage and player performance could all change before the regular season wraps up on October . 4 at Tampa Bay.
Sandoval had been dealing with a fever of 101 degrees, according to Lovullo, and the Red Sox removed him from the game after he scored the run due to “lightheadedness”. The Red Sox are loaded with left-handed bats and tend to thrive against knucklers. In their past 14 starts, Buehrle’s ERA is 3.56, Dickey’s 2.95. 13, the left-hander hasn’t recorded an out past the sixth while posting a 5.92 ERA over his last five.
Advertisement
The end result was a 4-3 win over the Red Sox over the first-place Jays Sunday at Rogers Centre.
