BOSTON — There would be no brooms Sunday.
With a chance to close a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays in the teams’ final meeting of the season, the Red Sox couldn’t solve knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who allowed one run on six hits over seven innings in a 3-1 win for the visitors.
Dickey has had Boston’s number all season, going 3-0 with a 2.49 ERA in four starts against Toronto’s American League East rival.
“He’s been good against us all year,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “(Sunday), we had a couple of opportunities with multiple men on with no outs, and he’s able to get a popout, a strikeout, a ball on the ground. … The one thing he’s done all year against us is just (throw) a high number of strikes.”
— Farrell said earlier in the weekend that Rubby De La Rosa’s outings might be shortened to keep the 25-year-old below his innings limit for the season. That’s exactly what happened Saturday, though De La Rosa might have been lifted when he was regardless. The right-hander allowed five singles, two walks and a three-run Jose Bautista homer (“I missed [on] that pitch,” he said)Â over his final two-plus innings of work before being lifted with nobody out in the fifth.
“I thought prior to the fifth inning, he used all his pitches well,” Farrell said. “he pitched out of a couple of jams, continued to show very good poise. The 2-0 slider to Bautista unfortunately nicks him for three runs, and as we stated before his start today, we would look to manage his innings a little bit.”
— Steven Wright was tremendous again in relief. The knuckleballer closed the game with five scoreless innings after coming on in place of De La Rosa, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out six.
— Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts accounted for four of the Red Sox’s six hits in the game, as each finished 2-for-4. Betts added a stolen base after doubling to lead off the eighth inning, and Bogaerts drove in Boston’s lone run with an RBI single in the sixth.
— Jackie Bradley Jr., making his first start since Aug. 17, didn’t record a hit in the game, but he flied out to the wall in center field in his first at-bat and hooked a foul ball just to the right of Pesky’s Pole in his second. He was unusually shaky on the defensive end, though, committing his first error of the season on Jose Reyes’ fifth-inning single.
— The Red Sox were without usual starters Brock Holt, Mike Napoli and David Ortiz. Holt and Napoli were recovering from illnesses — both felt dizzy and lightheaded earlier in the series — and Ortiz’s absence was previously scheduled. Farrell said Ortiz also will use the day to rest his right foot, which has been the target of several foul balls over the past few weeks.
Photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
