The Boston Red Sox center fielder proved as much in the sixth inning of Saturday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
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The meeting got rave reviews.
Rick Porcello pitched seven innings to become the first 20-game victor in the majors, Hanley Ramirez hit a three-run homer and the Boston Red Sox increased their AL East lead to two games by routing the Toronto Blue Jays, 13-3, on Friday night in Toronto. “That was the pitch that made me lose the game.” . “That’s something I’ll never forget”.
As for the Toronto Blue Jays (who almost became the Toronto Giants prior to being awarded their own expansion franchise in 1976, the same year that real estate magnate/philanthropist Bob Lurie bought the Giants), they won their first American League East Division title in 1985 before blowing a 3-1 series lead to the eventual World Series’ Champion Kansas City Royals.
If he didn’t allow a hit, Estrada would walk, seemingly, every batter he faced. The left-hander struck out five.
Dustin Pedroia homered off Happ leading off the sixth and has a 28-game hitting streak against the Blue Jays.
Still, Pedroia said it was a struggle facing Happ.
Red Sox: OF Andrew Benintendi (left knee) is to try sliding in a simulated game Tuesday at Fenway Park, manager John Farrell said.
Gibbons indicated that he wasn’t looking to shake things up though, after altering his batting order to move Devon Travis to leadoff and Jose Bautista to cleanup.
“Many, many times we’ve shown the ability to put up a quality offensive game”, Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “I’m not saying we didn’t today, but that needs to be more of the norm”. We were a swing of the bat away.
The reality is that a handful of pitchers stepped up and did what they’ve been doing for a good portion of this season to pull their team back from the edge of the abyss. In that outing, a 4-3 Blue Jays win, he went seven innings, allowing one run, four hits and one walk with four strikeouts. Upton got the scoring started in the ballgame with a two-run blast off of Eduardo Rodriguez in the second inning.
Betts led off the third with a single that glanced off the glove of left fielder Melvin Upton Jr. “Two guys who took a lot of heat (Friday) night came through for us”.
“It’s just important to get runs in general”, he said about his 20 homer of the year.
Toronto tagged another run on in the third when Aaron Hill was charged with a fielding error at the hot corner and Jose Bautista later slapped an RBI single to short.
Rodriguez allowed a double to Devon Travis to lead off the third inning but Travis was thrown out going to from second to third when Josh Donaldson, the following batter, grounded to shortstop.
“I’m glad we had it”, said Martin. “I’m glad we had it. It was just nice to get everyone together and get back on the same page”.
Ryan Tepera allowed the final two runs of the inning on three hits including Pedroia’s two-run single. Happ retired the next two hitters to end the inning.
The seventh inning started with promise as Hanley and Hill started it off with back to back singles to chase Happ from the game.
Joaquin Benoit entered and retired three straight, though the Sox scored one more on a sacrifice fly from Jackie Bradley Jr.
Travis Shaw is 1-for-3.
Washington coughed up a 4-0 lead before knocking off Philadelphia 5-4 on Trea Turner’s walk-off homer with two out in the bottom of the ninth.
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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.
