Blue Jays 3 Red Sox 4 (10 innings)
Once again, pitching was the story of the day.
Chris Bassitt threw 5.2, giving up 5 hits, 1 earned, 1 walk, with 5 strikeouts. He gave up his run in the sixth. A walk to Jarren Duran, who stole season and a two out Alex Bregman single (softly hit, 70 mph) scored the day’s first run. Chad Green came in and got the last out of the inning.
Green pitched a scoreless seventh as well.
Brendon Little came in for the eight. Rob Refsnyder reached on a Will Wagner error. Then Duran walked. Little got Rafael Devers to strike out, which was the end of his day. Yimi Garcia came in with the two inherited runners, and got a 5-4 force out (I thought it was a double play, but Vlad’s foot came off the bag).
Then, there was some strangeness. It turned out to be a wild pitch that scored the runner from third, but catcher Tyler Heineman felt it hit the foot of the batter. Unfortunately, the review didn’t go our way, and the game was tied. A flyout ended the inning.
Red Sox starter Walker Buehler also had a great start. 6.1 innings, 4 hits, 1 earned, 1 walk 7 strikeouts. We got two runs in the seventh. Will Wagner led off with a walk. An out later Myles Straw singled. Heineman singled in a run, and Vlad, pinch-hitting, ground into a 4-5 force, but the throw to first was offline, and a run scored on the error.
We had a chance to take the lead again in the ninth. Heineman led off with a single. Vlad had a fly ball to medium center field. Bo struck out, but Heineman stole on strike three. And Andrés Giménez stuck out to end the inning.
Garcia was back out for the bottom of the ninth. Trevor Story started the inning with a single. A steal moved him to second. A line out to left scared me, but thankfully, Davis Schneider made the catch. A pair of strikeouts ended the inning and we had extras for the second night in a row.
Top of the tenth: Giménez at second.
Santander had a swinging bunt that moved Giménez to third. A Springer sac fly gave us a lead again. A Wagner fly out ended the inning.
Bottom of the ten: Nick Sandlin in to try for his second save in a row. Blake Saboi starts the inning at second.
Duran singled and tied the game. Duran tried to steal second but was thrown out. But Rafael Devers singled, and Alex Bregman was hit by pitch, putting the winning run on second. Triston Casas was hit by pitch (the pitch after Sandlin painted the corner for strike three, but didn’t get the call. The plate umpire was particularly terrible today. Trevor Story hit a soft ground ball right at Giménez, but he bobbled it (and then threw to first, which had me wondering if he realized the situation; getting the runner at first didn’t matter at all) and the run scored from third, ending the game.
Sandlin could have used some help from the plate umpire.
Jays of the Day: Heineman (.312, 3 for 4, 1 RBI. He should lose points for arguing about the wild pitch hitting the batter’s foot instead of chasing down the ball), Green (.155) and Bassitt (.155).
Other Award: Sandlin (-.540, not fair really, was robbed by the plate umpire), Gimenez (-.244, for an 0 for 5, 3 k, add in the error in the tenth and he had a terrible day), Little (-.097), Clement (-.096, 0 for 3).
As mentioned, the plate umpire had an awful day. There was a strike call against Bo, that if you look on GameDay, the pitch isn’t even in the view of the batter box graphic.
Three of four against the Red Sox is good. A sweep would have been better.
Tomorrow The Jays are in Baltimore. Bowden Francis vs. Tomoyuki Sugano. It is a 7:00 Eastern start.