Red Sox 2 Blue Jays 6
This is going to be quick. I have squash in half an hour. I didn’t think I’d get to see the end of the game before having to leave.
Bo Bichette picked a perfect moment to come out of his slump. Tie game, eighth inning, bases loaded (Espinal, Zimmer (bunt single) and Springer all singled to load the bases), and Bo goes the other way for a grand slam. Before that, he was 0 for 3 with a strikeout and the talk in the GameThread was moving him down in the order.
May I say that putting the pitcher you just called up, only because you had pitchers that couldn’t come into Canada, into a tie game in the eighth inning seems….I’m not sure the right word. Either stupid or hopeful.
All our runs came on home runs. Lourdes Gurriel, in the fifth, and Matt Chapman, in the seventh, had solo shots.
Nathan Eovaldi was very good for the Red Sox. He gave up just 5 hits, and no walks, in 7 innings. Tyler Danish wasn’t good.
Jose Berrios didn’t look good at the start of the game. He gave up two rockets in the first inning, hit at 104.9 and 103.3, but both caught. He seemed to be having trouble finding the zone, and when he did, that ball was hit hard. But Tapia, Springer and Zimmer are an outstanding outfield. George Springer made a fantastic catch, going back and towards left field on a well-hit fly ball.
As the game went along, Berrios got better. He went 7 innings, allowed 5 hits, 1 walk with 4 strikeouts. Unfortunately, two hits came to start up the eighth inning, and he was pulled.
Adam Cimber came in. The Red Sox had Kevin Plawecki bunt the runners to second and third. An Enrique Hernandez single and an Alex Verdugo sac fly scored the runners and tied the game.
Thankfully Bo untied it in the bottom of the inning.
Julian Merryweather pitched the ninth, giving up one hit but then shut things down.
Jays of the Day: Berrios (.277 WPA), and Bo (.111). I thought Bo’s number would be higher, but he could have helped the team with a hit earlier in the game.
Suckage? Cimber (-.091) had the number.