Brian Johnson did all he could Saturday to help the Red Sox win, but it was Boston’s bullpen that couldn’t get it done in the end.
Johnson tossed five innings and gave up just one unearned run. The left-hander surrendered four hits, no walks and struck out four. But once he left the game it all unraveled for the Sox.
Mike Shawaryn, Marcus Walden and Matt Barnes gave up a combined seven earned runs in Boston’s 8-7 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon. The two runs Ryan Brasier walked in were charged to Barnes.
But despite the loss, manager Alex Cora still had high praise for Johnson, noting his five innings gave Boston a “chance to win.”
“It was good. That’s what we were looking for,” he said on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “Go five innings or six, give us a chance to win and he did.”
Nathan Eovaldi (elbow) still does not have a return date, and Cora knows just how important it was for Johnson to go as deep as possible into the game in his absence.
“It was very important in that fifth spot for somebody to step up and give us length,” Cora said. “We’ve been going through this the whole season. It was good to see him go out there and compete at that level. He’s a good pitcher.”
Here are some other notes from Saturday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game:
— Christian Vazquez smashed his 10th home run of the season in the third inning.
It was his second in less than 24 hours after his walk-off round-tripper Friday night.
— The blown save marks the 15h for Boston, which leads the American League.
— Ryan Brasier walked in both the go-ahead and insurance run in the eighth, an inning Cora referred to as “bad.”
“That was a bad inning, to say the least,” he said on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “Honestly, a bad game. Offensively, we didn’t do too much after putting up all those runs and that’s something you have to do … Putting teams away is a must.”
— The blown six-run lead is the largest Red Sox blown lead since 2015 when they blew a seven-run lead against Toronto.
— The Red Sox can salvage a split Sunday when the two teams wrap up the series at Fenway Park.
