Red Sox Live Blog: Darnell McDonald Throws Out Potential Tying Run to Finish 3-2 Red Sox Win

Postgame, Red Sox 3-2: If you’ve seen the replay, you might have an opinion as to whether the out call on Edwin Encarnacion was right or not.

In the Red Sox clubhouse, it didn’t matter. Praise all around for Darnell McDonald’s throw and Jason Varitek’s job blocking the plate.

We will have more on the final play of the game on the site. Look for that, as well as an update on Jon Lester, who is pretty confident he will be just fine.

The live blog will come at you again tomorrow as we prepare for the Tim Wakefield-Ricky Romero matchup. First pitch once again is 7:10 p.m.

Final, Red Sox 3-2: A single and a home run by the guy who hits them more often than anyone, Jose Bautista, makes it very interesting in the ninth.

A single one out later by Edwin Encarnacion makes it even more intriguing. A walk one out after that had the same effect.

Suddenly, the Jays, who were limited to five base runners in the first eight innings, had the tying run on second and the go-ahead run at first.

And when John McDonald looped a single into left, we saw the lead vanish. Or did we? Darnell McDonald came up throwing and gunned down Edwin Encarnacion trying to score from second. Replays make the out call look a bit iffy, but Darnell was still mobbed by his teammates with a walk-off assist.

What a finish to a strange affair.

More to come in a bit.

End 8th, Red Sox 3-0: Jonathan Papelbon takes a 1.30 ERA vs. the Blue Jays to the mound in search of his 18th save of the season.

Papelbon will face Corey Patterson, Jose Bautista and Adam Lind. They are a combined 3-for-25 (.120) with seven strikeouts vs. the righty.

Mid 8th, Red Sox 3-0: The Blue Jays manage a base hit and get two hard shots to left field off Daniel Bard, but both of them are tracked down by Darnell McDonald for the second and third outs.

Bard’s scoreless streak is up to 16 1/3 innings. Jonathan Papelbon is throwing with a purpose in the pen.

As damaging as the Jon Lester injury could be, it has not hindered the team’s effort in this one due to the work of the bullpen, which has thrown 10 2/3 innings and counting the past two days, giving up just one earned run in that span.

End 7th, Red Sox 3-0: Nothing but zeroes since Dustin Pedroia went deep in the third.

Brett Cecil just finished his second perfect inning by blowing a third strike by Adrian Gonzalez.

That gets us to Daniel Bard, who has a scoreless streak of 15 1/3 innings, the longest active streak in teh majors and the longest by a Red Sox reliever this season.

Bard last allowed a run May 23.

Mid 7th, Red Sox 3-0: Franklin Morales has thrown three scoreless innings over five appearances since coming off the disabled list.

He works a 1-2-3 seventh with all three outs coming in the air.

Boston has been getting some exceptional relief work of late.

End 6th, Red Sox 3-0:It is a left lat strain for Jon Lester. That is the muscle behind the shoulder, an area Matt Albers aggravated earlier the year and had to go on the DL.

In other news, Brett Cecil has quietly pitched a pretty good game.

He has allowed six runs in 12 innings at Fenway Park this year, but 19 runs in 21 1/3 innings in all his other starts.

Matt Albers is done after two scoreless. Franklin Morales will begin the seventh.

Mid 6th, Red Sox 3-0: We have seen the Blue Jays’ newfound aggressiveness under John Farrell come back to bite them before, and it seems as if it’s often Corey Patterson in the middle of the mistake.

Patterson just got picked off by Matt Albers attempting to swipe third with two outs. He was tagged out standing up by third baseman Yamaico Navarro, who took a rather easy toss from Albers.

Cardinal rule: never make the first or last out at third. Patterson has done so twice against Boston this year, if I recall correctly, and both times came with his team trailing.

That takes the bat out of Adam Lind’s hands. He was the tying run against a tiring Albers. Not good.

Oh, forgot to mention that Patterson walked and Jose Bautista followed with a single to break up the combined no-hit bid.

End 5th, Red Sox 3-0: Hits by Marco Scutaro and Adrian Gonzalez give the Red Sox a little life in the fifth.

But nothing materializes.

Yes, still waiting on Jon Lester news.

Mid 5th, Red Sox 3-0: Still waiting on word regarding Jon Lester. You’ll get it here first.

In the meantime, Matt Albers struck out two and worked around a two-out walk in the fifth. The Blue Jays have had just two men reach, both on walks to J.P. Arencibia.

End 4th, Red Sox 3-0: We do not know what happened with Jon Lester, but we do know he is done after four hitless innings. An update will come soon enough from Red Sox officials.

Matt Albers is on to pitch the fifth and maybe more.

With Clay Buchholz hurting and John Lackey struggling, this rotation cannot afford another major hit.

Not that you really care about this in the wake of that news, but they changed the error that scored Jason Varitek in the second to a hit for J.D. Drew.

Mid 4th, Red Sox 3-0: Jose Bautista made a pretty good bid for home run No. 28, but he hit it to the worst part of the park.

Bautista’s fly to the triangle in center is part of a perfect fourth for Jon Lester.

Lester finished the frame with his fifth strikeout, and it was a beauty. He tossed an 87 mph cutter that had Adam Lind flailing as it dove outside. The lefty then followed it up with an 84 mph cutter on the inside corner that froze the Jays slugger.

Pretty stuff from Lester right there.

End 3rd, Red Sox 3-0: Much has been made of Dustin Pedroia’s limited but impressive time in the lead as a cleanup hitter.

Well, more will be made of it after Pedroia cranks a solo shot off Brett Cecil in the third.

The homer into the Monster seats is the eighth of the year for Pedroia and bumps his average when batting fourth to .556 (15-for-27). Four of those 15 hits have been home runs. He has nine RBIs in his eight games (six starts) as the No. 4 hitter.

Mid 3rd, Red Sox 2-0: That “I GOT IT!!! I GOT IT!!! I GOT IT!!!” you just heard was from Yamaico Navarro, who let the world know he could handle the popup in front of the plate to end the top of the third.

Nice job by the kid to take charge.

Jon Lester allowed his first baserunner by walking J.P. Arencibia before retiring the next three in order.

The Jays have yet to get a ball out of the infield.

End 2nd, Red Sox 2-0: There’s the lead for Jon Lester, who may not need too much tonight.

David Ortiz doubled and Jason Varitek did the same one out later for the first run. J.D. Drew then grounded one into the shift that second baseman Mike McCoy bobbled on a somewhat difficult play in shallow right.

It goes into the books as an error. Varitek comes home on the play.

Mid 2nd, 0-0: Six up, six down against Jon Lester so far, four of them by way of the K.

Lester has the good stuff working here early on. You kind of get the sense that he is in the early stages of one of those vintage runs where he goes something like 8-1 with a 1.56 ERA.

If he does, he’ll be right there in the Cy Young talk again. And to think that about a month ago some people were wondering what was going on with him. He was relying so heavily on cutters, he was hitting batters left and right, and just didn’t look like himself.

He does tonight.

End 1st, 0-0: Amazingly, the Red Sox are 53-2 on Nova Scotia Night.

No, I just made that up. But you can sort of sense that the Nova Scotians in attendance provide quite a boost.

It didn’t add up to much in the first. But it will. Trust me.

Adrian Gonzalez reached with two outs when a breaking ball from Brett Cecil got away and nicked Gonzalez’s right elbow.

Dustin Pedroia, who enters a .560 career hitter in the cleanup spot, promptly struck out. That’s his first K in that role.

Mid 1st, 0-0: A strong opening act for Jon Lester as he blows away both Rajai Davis and Jose Bautista in a 1-2-3 first.

Lester has not allowed an earned run in his last 11 innings.

6:48 p.m.: It is Nova Scotia Night here at the park. Plan accordingly.

6:20 p.m.: Mike Cameron has been traded to the Florida Marlins for a player to be named later or cash. There isn’t much more to it than that, but look for a story on the site in a bit.

5:57 p.m.: The Blue Jays made a late scratch to their lineup, removing shortstop Yunel Escobar.

This is the new batting order for Toronto:

Rajai Davis, CF
Corey Patterson, LF
Jose Bautista, 3B
Adam Lind, 1B
Edwin Encarnacion, DH
Travis Snider, RF
J.P. Arencibia, C
John McDonald, SS
Mike McCoy, 2B

Patterson is 7-for-18 with a home run against Lester. Bautista is just 8-for-34 but three of the hits are homers. Lind, Encarnacion and Snider, who bat in succession, are a combined 5-for-36 (.139) with 13 strikeouts vs. Lester.

5:04 p.m.: It’s time for our daily medical minute, complete with commentary this time from Kevin Youkilis and Terry Francona.

First, Youkilis. He expects to be back tomorrow. He was hit in a muscle that has nerves extending up the neck. Hence, the headaches that he began to have yesterday and still is today.

“Basically the whole neck tightened up,” he said. “It didn’t really hurt as much where I was hit as much as the whole neck and my head. I got a headache and got tight…I should be good to go tomorrow.

“Today, just have to let it calm down.”

Youkilis talked about how he is looking forward to the All-Star break so that he can rest his many bumps and bruises.

“It’s part of the season. Things happen. You get bumped around, a lot of stuff happens. You’ve just got to grind it out, try to do as much as you can. Fortunately, the All-Star break’s coming soon. Those four days will help.”

Carl Crawford was out running first to third earlier today, looking just about 100 percent. It remains up in the air as to whether he will return before the break. Francona said Crawford has to keep doing what he’s doing, while also showing that he can show no ill effects.

If Crawford is good to go by tomorrow or Thursday, he’ll be activated. If the return is more likely to take place Saturday or Sunday, the club may just wait until after the break. There could be a resolution in the next day or so.

Regardless, the club is very encouraged by his progress.

“He had a really good day,” Francona said. “And again, that’s been about three days in a row now. So, just keep letting him do that, and I would think that maybe in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be talking about him coming back. When that is, I don’t know, but he’s doing really well. ”

Clay Buchholz will be seen Wednesday in North Carolina. It is an 8 a.m. checkup, which means Buchholz has to board a 5 a.m. flight. Perhaps we will know more on his situation when we get to the park in the afternoon.

Finally, Jed Lowrie has been taking grounders, but has yet to hit. Francona said the strength in his left shoulder has improved.

“He’s done everything but hit. He still has that discomfort, and he doesn’t want to hit, but his strength is really improving, which is good.”