By Michael Herman
Friday night at Fenway Park featured the visiting Toronto Blue Jays (61-50) coming into town. Toronto came into the three-game series with a two-game advantage on Boston (57-52) for the last wild card spot in the American League.
Red Sox sent lefty James Paxton to the mound. The “Big Maple” pitched five innings, allowing four runs on nine hits while striking out four.
The Jays came out swinging right out of the gate. Whit Merrifield took the very first pitch of the game over the Green Monster in left field to make it 1-0 and Toronto didn’t look back.
The Blue Jays used Long balls from Merrifield, Vlad Guerrero Jr, Dalton Varsho, Davis Schneider (first career HR) and Matt Chapman. Boston had its offense contained by starter Alek Manoah.
Manoah pitched 6.2 innings while allowed three runs on six hits and struck out five and improved to 5-1 against Boston in his career. Boston’s offense was highlighted by Jarren Duran, who went 3-4 including a two-run home run
The teams are back in action tomorrow. Game 2 is set to start at 4:10 p.m. ET.