The Blue Jays opened play Monday tied for second place in the American League East with Baltimore, two games back of the Boston Red Sox.
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Dave Dombrowski, president of baseball operations for the Red Sox, was running the Tigers then and admitted that he was thinking of that moment almost three years ago.
The pitching staffs of both teams struggled in the high-scoring game, with 18 pitchers toeing the rubber over the course of the game.
Encarnacion hit his first home run in the first inning, a solo shot over the left-centre field wall to tie it 1-1.
The third, though? Bad Buchholz returned with a vengeance. The runner was called safe by the umpire, but the call was reversed after a video replay. And from there, it was a vintage Buchholz meltdown.
Buchholz walked Russell Martin with the bases loaded to bring home Donaldson and cut Boston’s lead to 4-2. Tulo’s third career Grand Slam clears the sacks and puts T.O.in front 6-4. The Red Sox won the highly-offensive game 11-8, after being down 7-8 in the top of the sixth inning.
Ortiz walked and scored on Mookie Betts’ double in the first. Bradley showed that, for all that he’s batting ninth, he’s not to be taken lightly. Ace Marco Estrada has been shelled over his most recent 28 1/3 innings pitched (six starts), allowing 22 runs and an ugly 39 hits and 10 walks.
Whats frustrating about the Jays 2-and-7 September and three straight series defeats is how they have not performed to expectations.
“I got chills all throughout that meeting”, said Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis, who had three hits to extend his hit streak to seven games. The Red Sox were unable to do that Saturday.
Porcello said he had received a number of congratulatory text messages, but had one he was going to respond to right away.
The Boys From Beantown grabbed the top spot in the division from the Blue-Birds last week, and David Ortiz wanted to help make sure they stay there, as the soon to retire slugger wrapped up his final trip to Canada. Maybe it’s the start of something, we’ll see. But if there’s any game these Sox have experience winning from early in the season, it’s the old barn burner. Gonzalez (11-9) gave up 1 run and 4 hits, bouncing back nicely from a rough outing against Atlanta in his last start. That placed a huge burden on Boston’s relief unit, which has been one of the team’s Achilles’ heels this season.
While Holt had wasted that particular opportunity, Jackie Bradley Jr. diminished the sting a bit by striking out to start the sixth.
MORE: Will Yankees fans moon David Ortiz? The Jays chose to turn to Joaquin Benoit. In a replay of 2013, Ortiz took a Benoit changeup, and blasted it to right. MVP candidate Josh Donaldson didnt get a hit against Boston, hasnt had one for the past seven games and is hitting below.100 for the month without a home run or RBI. “And thinking, ‘We’re leaving Boston up two games.’ And then with one swing of the bat, it all changed”.
“We never rolled over”, Red Sox manager John Farrell said. (0.2 innings, earned the victory), Brad Ziegler (1.2 innings), Fernando Abad (faced one batter), Matt Barnes (0.1 innings), and Koji Uehara (1.0 inning) kept the potent Jays offense off the board during innings five through eight.
Ziegler wouldn’t stop there, either. He is winless in nine starts but has allowed more than three earned runs just once in that stretch. Pinch-hitter Travis Shaw stuck out to end the inning. Employing a five-man infield after one out, the Mets almost escaped but Garcia grounded a single through the middle off Josh Smoker to end it.
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Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth for his 25th save of the season, overcoming a leadoff walk to Encarnacion.
