By Zachary McMahon –
The Boston Red Sox traveled to Toronto to face the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre for the series opener on Monday evening. The Sox are fresh off winning the last two games of the series against the New York Yankees, and winning back-to-back series against the best teams in the MLB for the first time in team history.
The Blue Jays also had a two-game winning streak, taking the final two games against the Cleveland Guardians this weekend. Romy Gonzalez was activated from the injured list after his rehab in Triple-A Worcester, so Jaime Westbrook was called down to Worcester before the game, and Gonzalez started at second base.
Masataka Yoshida had the night off as Tyler O’Neill was the designated hitter, and
the outfield laid from left to right was Jarren Duran, Ceddane Rafaela, and Rob Refsnyder.
Meanwhile, Bobby Dalbec started at first base for the Sox.
The Blue Jays put pitcher Yimi Garcia on the 15-day injured list, so they selected lefthander
Brandon Eisert from Triple-A Buffalo, who would go on to make his major league debut as a relief pitcher in this game. The Sox had Nick Pivetta going for them on the mound as he pitched seven innings, allowing
nine hits, three runs, one walk, and four strikeouts.
Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi started out by striking out both Duran and Refsnyder in the first, and then O’Neill and Rafael Devers hit back-to-back homers, he was able to slow the damage by flying out Connor Wong. Blue Jays designated hitter Justin Turner played the Sox for the first time since signing with the
Blue Jays in the offseason.
Turner walked in the second inning, then George Springer singled, and then Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a sacrifice fly to Rafaela, scoring Turner home for the first run of the game. The Sox would hit another pair of homers in the third with Rafaela to lead off, after a fly out from Duran and Refsnyder striking out for the second time, O’Neill hit his second homer of the game.
This is the second time that the British Columbia native hit two homers in a game this season for the Sox. After Wong and Gonzalez singled in the fourth, Dalbec brought Wong home on a single, and
Gonzalez advanced to third on an error.
After David Hamliton and Rafaela were struck out by Kikuchi, he got Dalbec on a rundown after picking off first. Gonzalez tried to steal home but got caught by the third baseman Ernie Clement to end the inning.
Turner hit his first homer since a two-homer performance on April 19 against the Kansas City Royals, which was a solo homer to left center in the sixth, to bring it to 5-2. It was his second extra-base hit as he hit a double in the fourth.
The Sox scored another pair of runs in the seventh with an RBI Double by Refsnyder and a sacrifice fly by Devers off Tim Mayza as they went up 7-2.
Leadoff batter Davis Schneider hit a solo homer to left to cut the deficit to 7-3 in the seventh. After the seventh inning, Brad Keller came in for Pivetta and retired his first five batters. However Clement singled, Kevin Kiermaier walked, Kenley Jansen came in as
Schneider came in and Danny Jansen was on deck.
Jansen got Schneider to pop out to earn
his 12th save of the season in the 7-3 win.
Eisert pitched the final two innings for the Blue Jays, allowing a hit and three walks, did not register his first career strikeout, but did not allow another run for the Sox.
The Sox went deep four times against Kikuchi, matching his career worst, and also did the same thing on Aug. 2, 2019 against the Houston Astros as a member of the Seattle Mariners. Hamilton left the game in the fourth after felling discomfort in his left side, so Enmanuel Valdez replaced him and moved Gonzalez to shortstop so that Valdez could play second.
The series will continue on Tuesday at 7:07 p.m. as Tanner Houck will go up against Chris Bassitt on NESN/NESN360.
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