Wade Miley (7-7, 4.38) was attempting to right the Red Sox ship, after their three game winning streak was snapped yesterday. Miley had posted a 3.41 ERA since the beginning of May. For the Jays, Matt Boyd would be making only his second career start, taking the loss in a 6.2 inning, four earned runs allowed effort on June 27 vs. Tampa Bay. The Red Sox offense was the story of this game, slugging their way to a 12-6 bounceback victory.
Yesterday, Rick Porcello allowed the first five Blue Jays to score. Tonight, the Red Sox duplicated this feat, and did a little beyond that, scoring seven before an out was recorded. Singles by Mookie Betts, Brock Holt and Xander Bogaerts plated the first run. David Ortiz followed with a three-run home run to left field, his second of the series, to make the score 4-0. Hanley Ramirez continued the onslaught with a home run of his own to push the score to 5-0. A single by Pablo Sandoval and a walk to Mike Napoli spelled the end of Boyd’s day without recording a single out. A two run triple by Alejandro De Aza followed, and a run scoring single by Betts, pushed the lead to 8-0 before Miley ever threw a pitch.
Miley managed to get through the first inning, but the second inning, he gave half the lead back. Three walks and four hits, including a two run single by Jose Bautista, cut the lead to 8-4. Chris Colabello, who started the rally with a single, even came up as the tying run, but Miley managed to retire him on a ground out.
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In the fifth, the Red Sox caught a break. A walk and a single put runners on first and second. Rookie Devon Travis followed with another single, but Betts came up throwing and nailed Danny Valencia at the plate on a close call that was reviewed. Jays manager John Gibbons was ejected when the call was upheld in the Red Sox favor, though it easily could have gone the Jays way.
The Red Sox added to their lead in the top of the seventh inning (to the relief of Red Sox Nation), thanks to the shaky control of Jays reliever Steve Delabar. Sandoval started the inning with a single. After a Napoli strikeout, Delabar uncorked two wild pitches to De Aza, advancing Sandoval to third base. With the infield in, De Aza hit a hot smash toward first base that Colabello could not handle, skipping by him for a double and run batted in. De Aza advanced to third on yet another wild pitch. With the infield in again, Betts hit a slow roller that squeezed through the infield to plate another run. Holt hit a chopper to Delabar who threw to first, thinking it was the last out, but it was only the second. Bogaerts chopped a dribbler toward third that a charging Josh Donaldson couldn’t handle on a do or die play, reaching base for his fourth hit and driving in another run. The Red Sox tacked on another run in the eighth off Jays fireballing 20 year old reliever Roberto Osuna on a two out double by Napoli and single by De Aza.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Jays hit two solo home runs and a double off Craig Breslow, to make the score 12-6, but Breslow managed to retire the last three batters to secure the victory.
Game Notes
- De Aza hit his seventh triple of the season, tying him for the major league lead in triples with Rajai Davis of Detroit.
- According to MLB.com, Matt Boyd was the first starter in history to allow at least seven earned runs and six hits without recording a single out
- The Red Sox won consecutive series for the first time since winning the first three series of the season in April.
- The Red Sox are now 37-44 at the halfway point in the season, six games out of first place. On June 20, they were ten games out.
Miley tied a career high with seven walks. Four had been his previous high this season. He was shaky almost throughout, recording a single 1-2-3 inning. He had to work out of two bases loaded jams and benefited from the iffy call at the plate in the fifth inning, that seemed to stop Toronto’s momentum. It took him 103 pitches to get the job done, but he squeezed through five innings for the win. To allow seven hits and seven walks in five innings and only four runs was remarkable because it could have been a lot worse. Limiting the damage except for the second was the reason he was able to squeak by.
Ogando gets the nod for his two innings of relief. He struck out three and walked one while giving up two hits. Matt Barnes came in and shakily allowed the first two batters to reach before a strike out and double play ended his inning. Breslow was also shaky, allowing two runs in the ninth in a mop-up role. Considering the Red Sox scored 12 runs, there was a lot more anxiety for the Red Sox than there should have been.
In this must-game after yesterday’s momentum killer, the Red Sox offense came out and hammered the Jays pitching. Bogaerts gets a share of the award for his four hits, especially the first one to give the Sox the early lead. De Aza gets his share of the award for the four runs he knocked in with a single, double, and triple. His success has blocked Jackie Bradley Jr.‘s playing time, because all De Aza does is hit lately. His OPS of .971 for the Red Sox in 22 games, only improved with this game. Honorable mention to Ortiz for the three run oppo taco in the first inning to open up the lead, that the team would need against this scary Toronto offense.