Final, Blue Jays 7-4: The captain gets in one final blow by taking Frank Francisco deep to start the ninth.
It is the 11th home run of the season for Jason Varitek, but not nearly enough as the Red Sox fall again. Dustin Pedroia struck out with two men on to end it, going 1-for-20 in the series.
Boston has lost three straight series and seven of its last 10 games. It will head to Tampa Bay up six in the loss column with 19 games to play.
First up in that suddenly very big series is John Lackey. He will be opposed by Wade Davis in a 7:10 p.m. start. See you then.
End 8th, Blue Jays 7-3: OK, what do I know? It’s not Jon Rauch, even though he was warming in the pen. It will be Frank Francisco, who gave up two runs last night and owns a 10.70 ERA against the Red Sox.
Perhaps Rauch, who has pitched just twice since undergoing an appendectomy, will be the “backup closer” tonight.
Boston has the bottom of the order coming up.
9:38 p.m.: Felix Doubront had a rough time in his last appearance during the Texas series at home, and his results this time around aren’t much better.
Consecutive doubles with one out have given the Jays another run. With the score 7-3, just one out in the inning and a man in scoring position, Matt Albers is coming on to try to keep this a four-run game.
Mid 8th, Blue Jays 6-3: Unless the Blue Jays produce a rally in the last half of the eighth, we will see Jon Rauch on to try to pick up the save. He hasn’t had a save opportunity in more than a month and owns an ERA just south of 5.00.
End 7th, Blue Jays 6-3: Felix Doubront threw one pitch before catching Jose Bautista off first to finish the seventh.
That’s it. Not much more to add.
9:22 p.m.: The Red Sox needed a shutdown inning, but didn’t get it. Eric Thames took Michael Bowden deep to begin the bottom of the seventh, providing a run that may prove incredibly large.
The Jays have a weakness at the back end of the bullpen, so it would not be shocking to see Boston make some noise in the final two frames. That makes the Thames blast a bit one, as well as anything else Toronto can add in the seventh.
Bowden is yanked with two outs and a man on first. Felix Doubront will try to get left-handed hitter Kelly Johnson.
Mid 7th, Blue Jays 5-3: That big hit we just referred to comes off the bat of Marco Scutaro. He knocks a two-run single into left to close the book on Ricky Romero.
Scutaro is 10-for-16 with nine RBIs in this series.
9:04 p.m.: And that’s why it was important that Andrew Miller allowed just one run over his final three innings in an otherwise subpar outing.
The Red Sox are on the board and have a chance to get right back in this thing with one more big hit.
Jason Varitek walked and Darnell McDonald reached on an infield hit. Jacoby Ellsbury followed with his second double of the game to plate Varitek, move McDonald to third and chase Ricky Romero.
The surging Marco Scutaro is up with two outs. He will face new pitcher Casey Janssen. A hit can score two and completely change the complexion of this one.
End 6th, Blue Jays 5-0: So, the lead over the Rays in the loss column will be six if the score stays like this.
That margin was 10 about two weeks ago. This upcoming series in Tampa Bay has the potential to be the first with a bit of a playoff feel to it. You know the Rays are fighting for their lives, and they’ll have plenty of life with a sweep, and still somewhat of a pulse if they take two of three.
Mid 6th, Blue Jays 5-0: There was a postive stat (Josh Reddick’s) in the last scoreless inning for the Red Sox. Here’s a negative one.
Dustin Pedroia, who struck out his first two at-bats, grounded into a fielder’s choice in the sixth. That left him 1-for-21 (.048) over a span of five games.
Included in that swoon are five strikeouts against zero walks. In fact, Pedroia, who was drawing walks at an incredible rate earlier in the year, has not taken one since Aug. 27. That spans 11 games.
Michael Bowden is on to pitch the sixth and maybe more. Andrew Miller has allowed 11 runs, all earned in 6 1/3 innings his last two times out.
End 5th, Blue Jays 5-0: Again, it will not be a pretty line and the Red Sox may very well end up losing this one, but it did not look as if Andrew Miller would get through five innings. They’ll take it.
The way the bullpen is right now, perhaps Miller gets to go back out for another batter or two. He is at 93 pitches after getting through the fifth.
Edwin Encarnacion doubled with one out in the inning. He is hammering the Sox right now.
Mid 5th, Blue Jays 5-0: It’s not often Jacoby Ellsbury is made to look foolish, at least not in 2011. But Ricky Romero just finished another scoreless inning by getting Ellsbury looking at a knee-buckling breaking ball.
There have not been many positives for the Red Sox tonight, but Josh Reddick’s ringing double to the deepest part of the park off Romero in the fifth is one. Not only did it come off a tough lefty, but it gave Reddick a .563 (9-for-16) mark in his last five games.
Four of those hits have gone for extra-bases. Reddick has had ups and downs, but he’s near .300 with some pop and has played a pretty good right field.
End 4th, Blue Jays 5-0: If Andrew Miller throws up one more scoreless frame, the Red Sox will have to be happy. He has normalized things with a scoreless fourth and has enough bullets left to go one more.
Miller struck out Eric Thames on his 77th pitch to finish the bottom of the fourth.
Mid 4th, Blue Jays 5-0: We made note in a pregame post that the top six hitters in the Red Sox lineup entered this one 41-for-96 (.427) against Ricky Romero.
After he works around a two-out walk to Kevin Youkilis, that sextet is 1-for-10 with three strikeouts and the one hit was a bloop that fell in and out of Jose Bautista’s glove in right.
Romero is very much in control of things right now.
End 3rd, Blue Jays 5-0: Andrew Miller threw nothing but fastballs in a three-pitch encounter with Jose Bautista, and then threw five more in a row to Edwin Encarnacion.
The eighth pitch (and eighth fastball) of the inning was launched by Encarnacion the other way, vanishing over the wall in right to make it a five-run game.
It didn’t seem like Encarnacion got the best swing on the ball. He sort of poked at it. But there was not much bit or movement on the pitch, so he was able to zero in just enough.
Encarnacion has six RBIs in the last two games.
Mid 3rd, Blue Jays 4-0: Ricky Romero’s first walk of the game came with one out in the third. His third strikeout of the game came against Marco Scutaro to end it.
As we turn our attention to Andrew Miller’s third inning, we remind you that the long men are probably Felix Doubront and Michael Bowden. Alfredo Aceves may be available, but he threw 56 pitches in the series opener, and Kyle Weiland starts Saturday in Tampa Bay.
They need a zero or two from Miller.
End 2nd, Blue Jays 4-0: There is no easy way to prove this, but it seems as if every time Andrew Miller has a rough inning, one of his first few pitches of the frame is woefully wayward, like a 56-foot dead fish or a fastball that bounces to the backstop.
It’s like a precursor to him totally losing his location.
Such was the case in the second when his second offering to leadoff hitter Kelly Johnson sailed a couple of feet outside and into the dirt.
Very few pitches were located well after that, and Miller’s body language was not good.
Johnson, Brett Lawrie and David Cooper each singled to make it 1-0, and J.P. Arencibia absolutely unloaded on a changeup that just sat on a tee. The three-run shot to left was a no-doubter that lifts Miller’s second-inning ERA with the Red Sox to 10.32.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: Surely, there’s something to the Red Sox’ domination of Ricky Romero. They see the ball well, they wait him out, they’re in his head…whatever it is.
But he’s a good enough pitcher that you figure he’ll just completely shut them down some day. It’s too early to suggest such a scenario tonight, but he did just carve through the top of the second in 11 pitches.
Jason Varitek struck out swinging to end it.
End 1st, 0-0: The Rogers Centre. Where leadoff doubles lead to nothing.
The Jays just wasted theirs, but you can credit Marco Scutaro for doing all the work to save Andrew Miller.
Scutaro, who is having a spectacular series, made the first out with an over-the-shoulder sliding catch in left-center field, and then made the last out with a play deep to his backhanded side.
His throw to first was scooped out by Kevin Youkilis just in time to nail Edwin Encarnacion. With a runner on third, it saved a run, although on first glance he appeared safe to me.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Well, we know home plate umpire Eric Cooper was ready for this one.
Just three batters into the game, Cooper unleashed a tirade into the Red Sox dugout, potentially directed at Jon Lester. Wonder what Cooper had for dinner.
If it did anything, it might’ve served to fire up Ricky Romero. He had allowed a bloop double to Jacoby Ellsbury to start the game and then saw Ellsbury move to third on Marco Scutaro’s team-high fifth sacrifice bunt.
But Romero struck out Dustin Pedroia and then got David Ortiz to chop one to second.
Ellsbury’s double was his 40th in 2011 and the 100th of his career.
7:08 p.m.: Ricky Romero has thrown a strike to start things off against Jacoby Ellsbury. Get settled in for the finale.
6:48 p.m.: So we go into this one with no Daniel Bard (36 pitches last night), probably no Dan Wheeler (26 pitches last night) and maybe still no Alfredo Aceves (56 pitches three nights ago). At the very least, Aceves would be limited to an inning or two at the most.
And we know Tim Wakefield is not usable as a long man. In fact, Wakefield is scheduled to start next Tuesday.
And all this with the combustible Andrew Miller on the mound. With September call-ups this isn’t always an issue, but Kyle Weiland is pitching Saturday. That leaves Felix Doubront as the best (only?) option to eat up some innings if Miller is knocked out early
If the Sox are winning, it could be a mix-and-match scenario if there is a need to bridge things to Jonathan Papelbon. It would not be shocking to see Doubront and/or Franklin Morales getting big outs in the seventh, Aceves throw the eighth and Papelbon the ninth. Something like that.
5:55 p.m.: As day turns to night and the Red Sox-Blue Jays approach first pitch, let’s take some time to read up on a few things.
To begin with, check out my 20 random thoughts on the Red Sox. Why 20? Because that’s the number of games remaining, which is just amazing to me. Anyway, it’s a mish-mash of stuff related to your local nine.
Left over from last night is Mike Cole’s take on the disaster that was Wednesday in Toronto.
Mike Hurley has a thorough look at the 10th Player Award candidates on the Red Sox. I agree with his vote. See if you do as well.
The great Don Orsillo chimes in with his weekly mailbag.
We also have information on Red Sox playoff tickets and when/how you can go about purchasing them.
Finally, with the NFL starting tonight and the Patriots getting going in a few days, make sure to see what Jeff Howe is up to.
5:02 p.m.: So, what are we going to get from Andrew Miller tonight? Do you have any clue? I don’t.
And it’s not like we have much history from which to draw. Miller has thrown one-third of an inning in his career against Toronto and that was in 2006. Also, it did not occur in the Rogers Centre, which can eat some people up.
Only three members of the Blue Jays lineup tonight have ever faced Miller. Here is the order he will attempt to tame:
Yunel Escobar, SS
Eric Thames, LF
Jose Bautista, RF
Edwin Encarnacion, DH
Kelly Johnson, 2B
Brett Lawrie, 3B
David Cooper, 1B
J.P. Arencibia, C
Mike McCoy, CF
Escobar is 1-for-7 against Miller. Encarnacion is 1-for-2. Johnson is the one to watch. He is 3-for-5 with a triple and two walks vs. the lefty.
One positive for Miller may lie in his home/road splits. He’s been horrendous at Fenway Park, another place that can eat people up, especially some left-handed pitchers. But on the road this year Miller is 5-1 with a 3.32 ERA. He has held opponents to a .248 average in those eight games (seven starts).
2:47 p.m.: It’s “Sit a Lefty” night at the Rogers Centre, where the Red Sox will give two of their left-handed bats a night off, at least to start.
Both Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford are out of the starting lineup against Blue Jays southpaw Ricky Romero.
Here is the batting order, followed by some numbers:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Marco Scutaro, SS
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
David Ortiz, DH
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
Jed Lowrie, 3B
Jason Varitek, C
Josh Reddick, RF
Darnell McDonald, LF
This is the first game off for Gonzalez since July 29. It is the first time Pedroia has hit third since July 6, also against Romero in a game that saw the Sox chase him after just 4 1/3 innings.
The top six hitters in the batting order have an average against Romero of .308 or better. Combined they are 41-for-96 (.427) with seven home runs and 12 doubles against him. Yikes.
10:30 a.m. ET: Coming off the shortest start by a Red Sox starter this season, Andrew Miller will look for something a bit better when he takes the mound Thursday night in Toronto.
Miller lasted only 1 1/3 innings against Texas his last time out, giving up six runs in what resulted in a 10-0 loss for Boston, which has lost six of nine overall.
The latest of those setbacks was as painful as any the club has endured all season. After taking an 8-5 lead and getting Tim Wakefield in line for his 200th career win, the bullpen fell apart in an 11-10 setback to the Blue Jays, who have taken two of the first three in the series.
Toronto counters with a lefty of its own in Ricky Romero. He is 13-10 with an impressive 2.97 ERA but has been beaten up by the Sox over the years. Romero owns and 8.08 ERA in 11 career starts against Boston and is 0-2 with an 11.42 mark this year.
First pitch is 7:07 p.m.
