All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' loss to the Blue Jays, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
HEADLINES
Jays pile on: In each of the three visits to Boston this season, the Toronto Blue Jays have recorded one ridiculously lopsided win in each series. In May, they had an 8-0 laugher. In June, they smoked eight homers and won a game 18-4. And the pattern continued to play out, right through the final game of their final visit, with a 13-1 romp over the Sox. The Blue Jays jumped all over Eduardo Rodriguez for three in the first, one in the second and two more in the fourth. Rodriguez had poor command, which he attributed to being somewhat out of rhythm. Rodriguez came out of his last start early with a migraine, so he had only pitched one inning over the previous 12 days. It showed as he was knocked around in the first inning, with his changeup being thrown too hard at times. In the fourth, his final inning of work, he completely lost the plate, issuing three straight walks and forcing in a run. It's part of the up-and-down season that Rodriguez, who has been the victim of yes, some bad luck and poor defense at times, but also, his own inconsistency.
One-sided loss ends with strange lineup: At some point over the course of the night, the Red Sox had each of their catchers in the lineup together. Christian Vazquez played third base, Kevin Plawecki played first and Connor Wong was behind the plate. The strange thing is that, of the three, Wong has played the most infield as a professional, having played both second and third base in the Dodgers' organization. Later, Plawecki took to the mound for the ninth and threw just the second 1-2-3 inning of the night for Boston pitching, and showing a sense of humor, stopped before he reached the dugout to offer up his hat and glove to the umpiring crew to check for sticky stuff. They declined his offer. Elsewhere, the Sox also had Bobby Dalbec slide over from third to short, thus becoming, at 6-4, the tallest player ever to play the position in franchise history. Then, there was Franchy Cordero, who began the night at first, was moved to right field, then, when Plawecki went from first to the mound, returned to first. Yeah, it was that kind of night.
TURNING POINT
Maybe the announcement of the pitching matchup? Back on May 18, these two starting pitchers -- Eduardo Rodriguez for the Red Sox, Hyun Jin Ryu for the Blue Jays -- matched up at Fenway and the game ended with an 8-0 shutout win by Toronto. Then, Thursday night, more than two months later, not much has changed. When Rodriguez left the game, it was "only'' 6-0 -- but of course, things would get much, more worse after he left.
TWO UP
Bobby Dalbec: The bar is set kind of low here, given the overall performance, but Dalbec did knock in the only Red Sox run of the night with a double in the seventh, and remarkably, played a few innings at shortstop.
Kevin Plawecki: Never mind making a mockery of the game -- that had already been accomplished by the other pitchers. Plawecki came in, threw strikes and retired the Jays in order in the ninth.
TWO DOWN
Brandon Workman: In what turned out to likely be his last appearance for the Red Sox, Workman worked two innings and allowed four runs on seven hits. He was later designated for assignment.
J.D. Martinez: For the second straight night, Martinez ran cold at the plate, going hitless in four at-bats while fanning two times and stranding three baserunners.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"He expects better, we expect better and he will be better.'' Alex Cora on Eduardo Rodriguez.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
* This was the second most lopsided loss of the season for the Red Sox. The most lopsided (18-4) also came against Toronto.
* The Sox stretched their errorless streak to eight games.
* Alex Verdugo extended his hitting streak to five games.
* The game marked the sixth career pitching performance by Kevin Plawecki.
* Christian Vazquez posted his 20th multi-hit game of the season.
UP NEXT: The Red Sox begin a 10-game road trip with the first of three at Tampa Bay with LHP Martin Perez (7-6, 4.18) vs. TBA, starting at 7:10