Jon Lester was giving what could have been one of his best performances of the season today until he ran into the 7th inning and ended up in line for a loss. The Sox hoped to be able to get some revenge from the Jays sweeping them twice by returning the favor, however they were unable to get that elusive 3rd win.
Lester was cruising right along pitching scoreless inning after scoreless inning. Unfortunately so was Morrow for the Blue Jays. The Sox and Jays were both scoreless heading into the 7th inning. Morrow was out of the game, so the Sox hoped to capitalize on the Jays bullpen. Pedro Ciriaco hit a single and then Jose Iglesias headed to the plate. Iggy had a 2-2 count when Ciriaco stole second base. Bobby V did something quite unusual at this point, he headed out and had Daniel Nava pinch hit for Iglesias in the middle of an at bat. While I could understand the reasoning since Ciriaco just got himself into scoring position, but if you were going to pinch hit for Iggy, he should have given Nava a whole at bat to try to get the run in. I also imagine that being pulled in the middle of an at bat did nothing for Iglesias’ confidence at the plate, but then again with a .075 AVG I can’t think he has much confidence to begin with. Still. Bizarre. That’s Bobby V for ya.
Lester took the mound for the 7th and this is where a great outing turned into a losing effort. Gomes hit a single and Davis was out to pinch run. Davis immediately stole second and then Vizquel hit an RBI single to give the Jays the first run of the ball game. Sox 0-1. Lester followed that up by giving up a 2 run HR to Hechavarria. Sox 0-3. In the 8th, Daniel Bard took the mound for the Sox. Bard continued his season of struggle. It’s amazing the regression of Bard during this season. Bard gave up a leadoff double, an RBI single and then a walk. Andrew Miller was in the game to face one batter and he got his job done getting the first out of the inning. Scott Atchison made his debut off of the DL and proceeded to give up an RBI single to Sierra. Sox 0-5. Atchy got the final 2 outs to get out of the inning, but the continued damage was done.
The Sox lost, but they took the series and it’s been a while since we could have said that.
Red Sox 0 Blue Jays 5 BOXSCORE
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