Ortiz drilled a three-run homer in the sixth inning, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Hanley Ramirez also connected, and the Red Sox outslugged Toronto 11-8 Sunday, reclaiming a two-game lead over the Blue Jays in the AL East. The Red Sox are two games ahead of Toronto.
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The Boston Red Sox announced plans Monday to celebrate 10-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion David Ortiz during his final weekend of the regular season. The Red Sox used eight relievers, the Blue Jays seven.
The Red Sox scored four times with two outs in the ninth inning to pull off an 8-7 comeback victory over the Rangers.
With 20 games left in the season the Blue Jays need to turn it around quickly, otherwise silence may fall over the Rogers Centre earlier than expected.
Encarnacion fired right back with a solo shot in the bottom of the first, putting a 2-2 pitch from Buchholz over the left-centre field wall.
Washington’s Gio Gonzalez pitched seven sharp innings as the Nationals edged Philadelphia 3-2, maintaining their nine-game lead in the NL East.
Andrelton Simmons drove in two runs and Jered Weaver scattered four hits while allowing two runs over 6 2/3s to send the Angels past Texas 3-2. The 32-year-old Dominican Republic native gave up 13 runs (10 earned) over 22 2/3 innings in his first four starts with the Blue Jays. More importantly, they have gone 3-8 in their last 11 games and must contend with six other teams who also have realistic goals of claiming one of the two wild card spots.
Xander Bogaerts had two hits and two RBIs to help the Red Sox overcome Edwin Encarnacion’s two home runs and Troy Tulowitzki’s grand slam.
The bottom line is that Toronto is getting cold at the wrong time.
Urena retired the first 14 batters he faced. He walked reigning league MVP Josh Donaldson, and surrendered the second home run of the game from Encarnacion to give Toronto an 8-6 advantage. Buchholz last saw the Jays in June when he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning in 5-4 Sox loss. Holt drew a walk with two down in the frame, then advanced to third on a wild pickoff attempt from Biagini.
Ortiz had also scored the first run of the game when he chugged around the bases and scored from first on a double from Mookie Betts. It’s the fourth time in Upton’s career that he’s had 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases.
Ortiz admitted to flashing back to his 2013 success against Benoit as he walked to the plate. The home run was Ortiz’ 535th of his career, moving him past Jimmie Foxx into 18th place on the all-time HR list.
Reynolds’ homer was the 250th of his career and 13th of the season. In exchange for the actual home run ball, Ortiz signed one ball for Rory and another for Ella. Buchholz put together another solid outing on Tuesday against the Padres, pitching 6 2/3 innings and allowing one run, eight hits and no walks with six strikeouts.
Noe Ramirez came out to pitch the 5th inning for the Sox. Kimbrel came out for the 9th with a 3 run cushion. He struck out Jose Bautista with some high heat for the first out, then looked like he had given up a double into the right field corner from Martin.
Martin made a daring play in the fifth inning, jumping into the Red Sox dugout trying to catch a foul ball from Hill.
Donaldson sat with what Toronto manager John Gibbons described as general body soreness.
In the end, ticket prices outweighed the chance of catching a souvenir on the foul lines, and the Kerrs, who live in Bend, settled on outfield tickets for August 28, a Sunday night game in Boston against the Kansas City Royals.
After the final out, that’s when things really heated up between the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays.
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The Blue Jays had occupied sole possession of first place in the AL East as recently as September 5 but are still two games back of Boston after the Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-2 on Monday.
