The Boston Red Sox had to wait a bit, but they put themselves in position to take a series win against the Toronto Blue Jays.
After a 33-minute rain delay before the game, Boston worked to a 5-4 win over the Jays on Wednesday night at Fenway Park.
Eduardo Rodriguez earned his team-leading 11th win of the season after another strong outing, while the Red Sox bullpen danced some dicey moments in the late innings to preserve it. Rafael Devers led the offense with four RBI’s. Boston outhit Toronto 14-5.
The Red Sox moved to 52-44 with the win while the Blue Jays fall to 36-61 with the loss.
Here’s how it all went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Tense.
Boston certainly didn’t make things easy in this one.
ON THE BUMP
— Rodriguez added another page to a solid run of good starts.
The 26-year-old cruised through most of the Blue Jays’ lineup — with the exception of Teoscar Hernandez. The Toronto center fielder twice took Rodriguez deep with solo shots in the third and fifth innings.
Rodriguez exited with some runners on in the seventh after a walk and a fielding error by Devers, but finished with an impressive line. He went 6 1/3 innings, allowing just two runs on three hits while striking out four with three walks.
— Matt Barnes entered in a jam. Despite walking one to load the bases, he got out of the inning with strikeouts of Danny Jansen and Eric Sogard.
— Josh Taylor ran into trouble in the eighth.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. took the southpaw deep to left to narrow the Sox lead to 4-3. The lefty then hit the next batter and walked Cavan Biggio, leading Alex Cora no choice but to replace him.
— Brandon Workman came on with two on and one out in the eighth, but got two strikeouts, winning a 10-pitch battle with Freddy Galvis to escape the inning.
He was back in the ninth, allowing two walks and giving up a run-scoring single, but recovered to record his fifth save.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— The Red Sox got to Aaron Sanchez pretty early and often.
Brock Holt put Boston on the board in the second with a line drive base hit to center field to score Andrew Benintendi.
— Devers remained on his current tear, leading off the bottom of the third with a home run that squeaked over the Green Monster to make it 2-1.
— Boston tacked on two more runs in the fourth thanks to Devers.
The third baseman laced a double to right field, scoring Christian Vazquez and Mookie Betts to give the Sox a 4-1 advantage.
— Boston loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh, but couldn’t build on their two-run lead, with Jackie Bradley Jr. striking out.
— The Red Sox did add insurance in the eighth.
Devers drove in his fourth run with a single to center to make it 5-3.
— Holt and Devers each had three hits. Vazquez and Xander Bogaerts had two hits for the Sox. Bradley Jr. was the only Boston hitter to go hitless, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Consider yourself warned.
UP NEXT
The Sox and Blue Jays close out their four-game set Thursday. First pitch at Fenway Park is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET. Chris Sale (3–9, 4.27 ERA) is slated to be on the mound.
