The Boston Red Sox were held off of the scoreboard this Sunday, as Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Marco Estrada dominated on the mound.
He may have just come off of the disabled list, but Estrada looked to be in mid-season form against the Red Sox lineup on Sunday. In front of over 46 000 people in the Rogers Centre, the Toronto fans were treated to an amazing performance from their starting pitcher.
It wasn’t like Red Sox starting pitcher Steven Wright was much of a slouch, though. His real blemish was in the bottom of the first inning, when Edwin Encarnacion grounded into a force out play. Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts threw to second base and Dustin Pedroia, normally sure-handed, made a throwing error that allowed Encarnacion to reach first and scored both Kevin Pillar and Josh Donaldson.
The only other score was in the bottom of the eighth, when Donaldson homered off of the first pitch from Noe Ramirez. It was absolutely launched; however, it would only prove to be an insurance run.
The rest of the game was determined by Estrada. He pitched seven innings, allowing five hits, two walks, and eight strikeouts. His pitches were so filthy that it was making many Red Sox players ask the umpire what pitch had burned them or if their eyes had deceived them. Wright had officially taken the loss, but it was the lack of bats that really made it a problem for the Red Sox in the game.
Game Notes:
- The Red Sox went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position with seven men left on base. The Blue Jays were 1-for-7 with five men left on base.
- Chris Young went 0-for-3 at the plate before Pablo Sandoval came in to pinch hit. Sandoval didn’t get a hit either.
- In 32 at-bats, the Red Sox had seven total hits, two total walks, and 11 total strikeouts.
Wright finished with allowing two runs, one earned, on six hits, three walks, and five strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work. Sure, the Blue Jays likely would have still scored at least one run if Pedroia had not made that throwing error, but Wright did not look bad out on the mound. In 118 pitches, Wright threw 78 strikeouts with his moving knuckleball, forcing 10 groundouts to only three flyouts.
Without Hanley Ramirez, there wasn’t much of anything that the Red Sox could have considered offense. Han-Ram went 3-for-4 but only four other players could muster up a hit.
Travis Shawwas able to walk twice, but couldn’t move the runner with a hit, much like the rest of the team. The Blue Jays couldn’t get that much success off of Wright, either; however, it was definitely better than the goose egg that the Red Sox posted on the scoreboard at the end of the game.