The Market Basket shelves are empty for now. But somewhere, deep in the recesses of the company warehouse, there’s probably an old shipment of Bob Lobel “Panic Buttons.”
Red Sox Nation needs them.
Boston scored three runs in the top of the first inning but Clay Buchholz (5-6) gave them right back, eventually pitching six maddening innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits with four walks and a strikeout as the Toronto Blue Jays dumped the Red Sox by a 6-4 margin at Rogers Centre.
R.A. Dickey (8-10) didn’t exactly dazzle for the Jays, but it was enough, as he survived a three-run blitz in the first frame in which David Ortiz nailed his 24th home run of the season to score Shane Victorino (batting leadoff) and Daniel Nava. Xander Bogaerts hit a harmless single before the inning was out, and the Sox would be held to just five hits and a walk over the final eight frames.
Meanwhile, Buchholz was only able to pitch a single clean inning (the fifth) against the Jays. He allowed RBI doubles to Jose Bautista and Josh Thole in the first, as well as a Dioner Navarro RBI groundout that plated Bautista, and then an RBI triple to Ryan Goins in the sixth. Buchholz was also victimized in the sixth by another Xander Bogaerts error, his 14th of the season.
Bautista hit a seventh inning bomb off Andrew Miller to cap the scoring for the Jays.
Bogaerts and Nava each had two hits for the Sox; Bogaerts’ fifth inning RBI double off Dickey, scoring Nava, would be the final runner to reach base for Boston.
The economical Casey Janssen pitched the ninth for his 15th save. And you know what?
Holt plays or we riot. #RedSox
— Sean Sylver (@TheSylverFox) July 23, 2014
Brock Holt sat. The Red Sox lost. Cause and effect, or correlation, John Farrell? I’d rather not find out the answer.
Rubby De La Rosa (3-2, 2.64) tries to salvage a split for the Sox in the getaway game today against fellow rookie Marcus “The Abominable” Stroman (5-2, 3.58) at 12:37 PM ET.