Pitchers falter as the Toronto Blue Jays slide past the Boston Red Sox
The Toronto Blue Jays finally pummelled the strong Boston Red Sox side after a comeback winning performance in the bottom 9th to finish the series with a positive note. The side saw two consecutive losses in the previous games to come into the match. The series, already lost, meant there was nothing to do but win the game for honour and a relief on their Eastern Division American League ranking.
For the Red Sox, the game meant a chance to start the next game off with a winning streak of 4 games. However, their 3 game win run came to an end as the team lost tonight. After coming out with 2 recent wins over the Blue Jays, the team would go down by a slender 6 – 5 stretch in the last game. The match was taken away by reliever, Jonathan Papelbon who fell short of his 5th straight 30 games save since his career. The inexperienced pitcher lost his first save in 25, against the Jays as the game went down the last innings for a decider.
The Jays brought in Brad Mills who came into the game fresh off the dugout with no game starts in the season. The player managed to pitch only 4.1 innings before he was switched with reliever, David Purcey. He managed to strike out 7 times and got to pitch 99 times. In those throws, he allowed 7 hits, 4 runs of which 2 were home runs and 2 walks. The pitcher came off the ballpark with an Earning Run Average of 5.28.
The Red Sox team had Jon Lackey on the mound for the pitching duties. Having won 10 games, while losing 6, the experienced pitcher did very well, compared to his counterpart. He managed to pitch for 8.1 innings while pitching 98 times. He allowed 8 hits, 3 runs of which 1 was a home run and 1 walk. However, the ace man would manage 4 strike outs for the game altogether. Papelbon succeeded him and continued pitching till the last 8.2 inning. He threw 19 times and conceded 4 hits, 3 runs and a walk to tie the game down to Boston 5 – Toronto 5. The winning run would be knocked off Daniel Bard in the last moments as the team would go down in the last inning in a shocking manner.
The Boston Red Sox started their scoring in the top 3rd as Jacoby Elsbury ran for the last base from the third, off a sacrifice fly to the right by Victor Martinez. Jed Lowrie later got on the scoring board when David Oritz singled to the right. This jump started the chase as the runs tally was on 2 Boston – 0 Toronto. Jose Bautista later scored as he brought up the first run for the Blue Birds, off Adam Lind’s grounder to the double play.
The Boston side later, in the top 5th, replied as Brad Mills went for 2 homers as the visiting team extend their lead by another two runs. Lowrie hit a 421 foot homer to the centre as the squad went up by 2 runs.
This changed eventually though, as Oritz made his signature impact with a 401 foot homer down the right, putting the opponents on their backs. The Jays replied with a run as Yunel Escobar ran to the last base off a Bautista grounder into double play, in the bottom 6th.
The Boston side got back into the game with a run as Darnell McDonald’s triple down the centre allowed Jarrod Saltalamacchia to score the 5th for the Red Sox in the top 8th. With the game looking all set and done, in the bottom 9th, the Jays changed the tone of the game as Bautista banged his 408th homer to make his total home runs tally at 36. Papelbon then came in as the reliever for Lackey and led to the worsening of the situation as Vernon Wells scored off a Lind single to the centre.
Later, Edwin Encarnacion gave the team another chance as his double to the left enabled Dewayne Wise to score off a sprint through the last base putting both teams on deadlock. The game topple on the Red Sox as second Reliever, Bard, was given a shocker as Aaron Hill scored off a Fred Lewis sacrifice fly to the centre, bringing the game to its end with a stellar result.
The Boston side lost the game 5 – 6 as the Jays go forth with high morale to start off the next series in the coming day.
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