BOSTON — Steven Wright has been good in his two outings so far for the Red Sox, but the Toronto Blue Jays have been better.
In Wright’s last start in Toronto on April 10, he had the misfortune of going up against Marco Estrada, who blanked the Red Sox 3-0 in a game that saw Wright go 6 2/3 innings while giving up just two runs, with only one of them being earned. And on Sunday, Wright faced another strong arm in the Blue Jays’ rotation, Aaron Sanchez, who gave up only one run and no-hit the Red Sox through 4 2/3 innings at Fenway Park in Boston’s 5-3 loss.
By the time the knuckleballer came out after the sixth inning, the best he could do was a no-decision with Toronto up 2-1.
“They pitched better,” Wright said. “You look at (Estrada) the last time I threw and today Sanchez. He was nasty. He was throwing upper 90s, hitting the spots, changing speeds really well. That’s just the way baseball goes sometimes. You’ve just got to tip your hat to them. They played a hell of a game today.”
Still, Wright deserves a tip of the cap, too, as he held down the Blue Jays’ best hitters. Some mistakes in the first inning led to a solo home run by Jose Bautista and another run scored on three straight singles, but otherwise, Wright struck out Bautista twice, Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki once and kept MVP Josh Donaldson hitless.
“I just really tried to not throw the same speed too many times,” Wright said. “I don’t want to throw more than two or three pitches at the same speed because I feel like because they have such a good lineup and they’re really balanced hitters that I’ll try to do whatever I can to disrupt their timing. But they did a really good job today making me throw a lot of pitches.”
Here are some more notes from Sunday’s 5-3 loss.
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— The Red Sox tried to come back in the ninth inning, and many were left wondering why Red Sox manager John Farrell didn’t pinch hit Brock Holt for Chris Young, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Farrell said he wanted to make sure Young was getting at-bats before he starts against the two upcoming lefties.
“We’re going to need everyone, so I understand the question, and yet at the same time, I’m going to stick with the guy that I started, like I said before, against a big-time arm in Sanchez,” Farrell said. “… He’ll be in there the next two days, so to take a guy that hasn’t played for a week and then just assume he’s going to give you production against left-handers, he’s got to see right-handers to get the at-bats.”
— Second baseman Marco Hernandez had some success in his major-league debut, breaking up the no-hitter to go 1-for-2 with a run, a walk and a stolen base.
“It feels great,” Hernandez said. “I just go out there and push myself out and try to go hard and at the same time have fun. That’s the game. Go ahead and play hard and then have fun, enjoy the game.”
Hernandez is the first player in team history to record a hit, a run, a walk and a stolen base in his debut.
— Despite the loss, Wright’s outing was the third straight quality start for the Red Sox’s rotation. Boston also struck out 12 Toronto batters despite giving up 14 hits.
— Wright did have a scary situation in the fourth inning, when he hit Blues Jays first baseman Chris Colabello in the head. The knuckleballer explained what he said to Colabello as he took his base.
“Obviously it was an accident, but it still gets scary, and it definitely shook me up a little bit,” Wright said. “I’m glad (pitching coach) Carl (Willis) came up there to calm me down a little bit because it definitely affected me because it’s scary. … So basically what I told him, I said I’m sorry, I definitely didn’t mean to, and he understood. He understood I wasn’t trying to do that, but either way, it was something I needed to say to kind of get it off my chest more than anything.”
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
