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Instant Reaction: Blue Jays gave up five home runs in 10-2 loss to Red Sox

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Well, that was ugly.

On Tuesday evening, the Toronto Blue Jays started a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox, having lost seven of their last eight games as well as three consecutive series. Things didn’t change in this game, as the Blue Jays fell 10-2 to their American League East rival. Let’s take a look at what happened in this one.

 

The game was over before the Blue Jays even swung the bats. In the top of the first, Jarren Duran hit a home run on the third pitch of the game on a 0-2 count for the 1-0 lead. Alex Bregman also hit a home run to make it 2-0 for the Red Sox.

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In the top of the second, Kristian Campbell hit his fourth career home run for the 3-0 lead, which was the eventual game-winner. The next inning, Rafael Devers hit the Red Sox’s fourth solo home run, followed by Wilyer Abreu’s three-run blast to make it 7-0.

One of the only positives from this game was when the Jays scored their only two runs. In the bottom of the third, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his third home run of the season, a 421-foot blast with an exit velocity of 107 mph to cut the lead to 7-2.

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There was never any hint of a comeback, though. In the top of the eighth, Duran grounded out to score a run to make it 8-2. The next inning, Campbell hit a double to score another run, before Triston Casas grounded out to put the Red Sox in double digits. If only the Jays could do that.

Takeaways…

There were two positives from this game. First off was the Guerrero Jr. home run, which was his third of the season to move into a tie with Andrés Giménez and Anthony Santander. When Guerrero Jr. is hitting the ball like this, you know that he’s on. This season, he’s slashing .271/.368/.411 for a 129 wRC+.

The other positive was the return of Daulton Varsho, playing his first game of the season. Varsho went 0-3 with a walk with two strikeouts, but more importantly, he made a terrific catch as he’s one to do.

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Everything else? Not so great. The Jays mustered just four hits in the game, with Bichette hitting a double and a single. Clement had the other hit in this game. As a team, they batted .333 with runners in scoring position, which would usually be great, but they only had three opportunities to bat with a runner on second or third. Guerrero Jr.’s home run was the second time the team hit a home run with a runner in scoring position this season.

Bowden Francis had his worst start in a long time, giving up five home runs and seven earned runs to increase his season ERA to 5.28. Dillon Tate walked three in his inning and a third, but didn’t give up an earned run. Mason Fluharty struck out two in two innings of work, while Casey Lawrence munched the last two and two-thirds innings.

The Jays look to avoid losing their fourth consecutive series on Tuesday at 7:07 PM ET. Their starter is yet to be determined.

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.