Final: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 3

Any momentum seized by the Red Sox Tuesday night was lost Wednesday as Chris Sale was cuffed around for three homers in a 6-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

The loss was the fourth in the last five games for the Sox.

Sale dropped to 3-8 for the first half with a 4.04 ERA.

The Red Sox led 2-0 in the third and 3-1  in the fourth as Rafael Devers singled home two and Christian Vazquez homered for the fifth time in 13 games.

But the Blue Jays used the long ball to chase Sale in the sixth.

WHO: Red Sox vs. Toronto Blue Jays
WHEN: 7:07 p.m.
WHERE: Rogers Centre
SERIES TO DATE: Boston 1-0
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: Boston 6-4
STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Chris Sale (3-7, 3.82) vs. RHP Jacob Waguespack (0-0, 4.50)
TV/RADIO: NESN/WEEI 93.7 FM

IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:

9:25 Big squander for the Red Sox, who have runners at second and third with one out, but can't produce the hit -- or even a one-out flyball -- to get a run across.

9:04 Two-run homer by Brandon Drury -- to straightaway center, no cheapie --marks the third homer of the night for Toronto and the end of Sale's outing. Five runs in 5.2 innings.

8:56 Andrew Benintendi continues to struggle mightily. He's 0-for-11 with an 0-for-3 tonight and hasn't gotten the ball out of the infield twice.

8:21   Danny Jansen drops the head of the bat on a high fastball....and Sale immediately drops his head. He knew. Ball clubbed into the second deck in left.

8:16   Christian Vazquez cranks his fifth homer in the last games. Alex Cora made the unconventional move of starting Vazquez behind the plate with Sale, instead of the usual pairing of Sandy Leon with Sale. Move pays off in the fourth when Vazquez goes deep with No. 13.

8:05  Lourdes Gurriel gets a fastball on the inner half and hits it out to straightaway center, cutting the Red Sox' lead in half.

7:54  Long rundown, in which Michael Chavis bought time for Mookie Betts and Brock Holt to advance to second and third proves valuable when Rafael Devers singles home both. Devers then takes second on the throw home. Devers has eight RBI in the last 12 innings.

7:46 Sale gets Brandon Drury on an inning-ending lineout to right to strand two, but the inning requires 21 pitches, pushing his pitch count to 39 after two innings.

7:27 Chris Sale featuring his fastball more prominently in the first inning than he did in his last outing against the White Sox. In that start, Sale relief more on his changeup and slider in the early going, to his detriment. Tonight, he uses his fastball more early.

 

LINEUPS



RED SOX

Betts RF
Devers 3B
Bogaerts SS
Martinez DH
Benintendi LF
Vazquez C
Bradley CF
Chavis 1B
Holt 2B

BLUE JAYS

Galvis SS
Guerrero Jr. 3B
Gurriel Jr. LF
Biggio 2B
Grichuk CF
Smoak DH
Jansen C
Tellez 1B
Drury RF

 

 

WHAT'S UP: The Red Sox snapped a three-game losing streak Tuesday with a 10-6 win...The Red Sox have scored multiple runs in the first inning in each of their last four games and at least four runs in the first inning of each of the last three, tying the longest streak in MLB history....It's the third time the Sox have accomplished the feat. They also did so in April of 1974 and September of 1956....The Sox have collected at least 15 hits in each of their last four games the longest such streak for any MLB team since Arizona in 2015....It's also tied for the longest streak in franchise history and one shy of the modern MLB record, accomplished four times since 1900, most recently by the 1970 LA Dodgers...Over the last 80 years, the Sox are one of just three teams with 15 or more hits, five or more extra-base hits and seven or more runs in at least four straight games...Boston has also managed six or more runs with 10 or more hits in six straight games, tying for the longest streak in 2019....Rafael Devers became just the second player since 1920 to record multiple games of four-plus hits and six-plus RBI before turning 23....Hall of Famer Mel Ott is the only other player to do so....Devers has four career multi-homer games before turning 23. Ted Williams (six times) and Tony Conigliaro (four) are the only other Red Sox players to do that....During his six-game hitting streak, Devers is 15-for-27 with seven doubles, two homers, 10 runs scored and eight RBI while striking out just twice...The Sox lead the AL in batting average (.271) and OBP (.345) while placing third in runs per game (5.56), extra-base hits (310) and second in walks (329)….The Sox have hit at least three homers in each of their last three games and have homered in six straight for a total of 13....The last time they've hit three or more homers in four straight was 2003....They also have at least one extra-base hit in 99 straight games...Over their last 11 road games, the Sox are 10-1 and are 22-8 away from Fenway since  April 19. (In the recent London games, the Sox were officially the "home'' team)...Christian Vazquez has homered in five of his last 12 games and has hit safely in each of his last 13 starts and has reached safely in 17 straight games in which he's started.....Since May 4, Vazquez is hitting .335 (52-for-155), the fourth-highest average in the AL. in that span....In the last four games, Jackie Bradley Jr. is 10-for-17 and has  an OBP of .500 in the last 11 games....Over his last 12 starts, Chris Sale has a 2.76 ERA...He leads MLB with 10 starts of at least 10 strikeouts and has fanned 10 or more in nine of his last 12 starts...He's 0-1 with an 8.00 ERA in two starts against the Jays this season...Randal Grichuk is 6-for-12 with two homers off Sale in his career while Freddy Galvis is 4-for-11....The Red Sox have never faced Jacob Waguespack before...