FINAL: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 1 -Boston Officially Eliminated From Playoff Contention With Loss

The Red Sox fell to the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 Wednesday night at Rogers Centre. The Red Sox are officially eliminated from playoff contention with the loss tonight. 

Richard Fitts gave up his first earned run tonight after not allowing one in his first three starts. Fitts allowed only two baserunners without giving up any runs in the first three innings before getting hit harder in the fourth inning. Vladimir Guerrero Jr hit a leadoff double which was then followed by an RBI double from Alejandro Kirk. Ernie Clement later followed with an RBI single which stretched Toronto's lead to 2-0. 

Kirk continued his great game in the fifth inning with a two-run single before getting thrown out at second base trying to extend it to a double.

 Jonaton Clase hit his first MLB homer in the seventh inning extending the Toronto lead to 6-1.

It was not until the sixth inning when Boston got on the board with a Triston Casas RBI single scoring Jarren Duran. That inning started with Duran hitting his 48th double on the season and a Wilyer Abreu walk. The big problem for Boston tonight was that they went 1-6 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base. One of the big ones was leaving the bases loaded in the sixth inning trailing 4-1 before Nick Sogard flew out to right field. 

The Red Sox will begin their final season series on Friday night when they face the Tampa Bay Rays with Nick Pivetta on the hill at 7:10 p.m. 

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WHO: Red Sox (80-78) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (73-85)
WHEN: 7:07 p.m.
WHERE: Rogers Centre, Toronto.
SERIES TO DATE: 8-4 (3-4/5-0)
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Richard Fitts (0-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Kevin Gausman (13-11, 3.91)
TV/RADIO: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7
LIVE BOX
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Duran CF
Abreu RF
Casas 1B
O'Neill LF
Yoshida DH
Story SS
Sogard 3B
Wong C
Valdez 2B

SP Richard Fitts

BLUE JAYS
Clase CF
Lukes RF
Guerrero Jr. 1B
Kirk DH
Barger 3B
Clement SS
Jimenez 2B
Loperfido LF
Heineman C

SP Kevin Gausman

WHAT'S UP

The Red Sox have won 4 games in a row for the first time since 6/30-7/5 (5 games).

 Boston's 80 wins are its most since 2021 (92-70)...The club went 78-84 in both 2022 and '23.
Brayan Bello last night made his 30th start of the season, joining teammates Kutter Crawford (32 starts) and Tanner Houck (30 starts) as the 1st homegrown trio of Red Sox starters to make 30+ starts in a season since 1987 (Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst, Al Nipper).

It marks the 6th time the Sox have had 3 pitchers make 30+ starts in their age 28-or-younger season (see below)...The only other homegrown trio among that group was Lonborg/Monbouquette/Morehead (1965).

Tonight's starter, Richard Fitts, has tossed 5.0 innings and allowed 0 ER in each of his first 3 career starts.He's the 1st pitcher in Red Sox history to throw 5.0+ innings and allow 0 ER in each of their first 3 career games. The only other ML pitcher to do so was CIN's Andrew Abbot in 2023 (ER became an official stat in 1913).