All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' loss to the Blue Jays, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
HEADLINES
Toronto beats up Sox....again: The most predictable part of the Red Sox season has been their inability to be competitive with the Blue Jays. The 9-0 win by Toronto Friday night improved the Jays' record to 14-3 against the Sox this season, with Friday's victory the seventh straight win in for Toronto in head-to-head meetings. In the 17 games between the clubs to date, the Blue Jays have outscored the Sox by 57 runs -- a number that's somewhat skewed by a 28-5 loss back on July 22. Still, the Jays have completely embarrassed the Sox in most of these games and Friday night was no exception, with the Jays scoring runs in four of the first six innings to put the game out of reach.
Pivetta's struggles against East continue: All season long, the pitching of starter Nick Pivetta has dovetailed that of the team as a whole: pretty good against teams in the AL Central and West and National League, and completely over-matched against teams in the East. Pivetta went five innings Friday, allowing four runs -- three of them earned. Pivetta was his own worst enemy in the early going, with a wild pitch contributing to the first run in the first, and a walk in the second contributing to a run in the second. A two-run homer by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. -- an absolute rocket into the second deck at left -- closed out the scoring against Pivetta, who now has a 6.22 ERA against teams in his own division. A big problem Friday night was his ability to command his curveball, a key pitch for him. It left the Jays sitting on his fastball and doing a lot of damage against it.
TURNING POINT
Trailing 2-0 in the third inning, Pivetta issued a leadoff walk to Bo Bichette, then hung a changeup to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who hit an absolute rocket into the second tank in left. Guerrero, who had gotten into it with Pivetta earlier in the year, screaming from the dugout at him after Pivetta hit a teammate with a pitch, seemed to take particular pleasure in hitting the monster shot, admiring his work from the batter's box and then adding a Euro step to his very leisurely home run trot around the bases. That made it 4-0 and with the way Alek Manoah was pitching, it felt like 40-0.
TWO UP
Jarren Duran: Getting his first start at the big league level since last month, Duran made all the plays he needed to in center and chipped in with a single in the sixth, one of just three hits by the Red Sox.
Triston Casas: He fanned twice, but once again showed control of the strike zone with a walk in the seventh. He also had a fine leaping catch at first on a high line drive from Raimel Tapia to end the third.
TWO DOWN
Tyler Danish: Called in from the bullpen for the start of the sixth, Danish was quickly rocked, allowing a homer, single, single and homer to the first four hitters he faced.
Christian Arroyo: Arroyo was hitless in three plate appearances at the bottom of the order, fanning in two of them.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"That's a good hitting team, but we're going to be in this division for a long, long time. They're changing rules but not divisions. We're going to face all these teams and we've got to do a better job. They've had their way against us.'' Alex Cora on his team's struggles against AL East opponents.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
* Alex Verdugo saw his hitting streak snapped at nine games.
* The Red Sox fell to 6-18 in games started by catcher Reese McGuire.
* The home run by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the third inning was the hardest-hit homer (117.5 mph) off a Red Sox pitcher in the Stat-Cast era.
* The loss guaranteed that the Red Sox will finish with a losing record and in last place in the division.
* The game marked the third time in the last 13 games that the Red Sox have been shut out.
UP NEXT
The teams play the middle game of their series Saturday at 3:07. The pitching matchup will feature RHP Brayan Bello (2-7, 4.39) vs. RHP Ross Stripling (9-4, 3.16)