Another night, another disappointing outing from the Red Sox.
Wednesday’s game at Rogers Centre wasn’t pretty for Boston, as it fell 8-0 to the Blue Jays in the second of a three-game series. The Sox’s bats were silenced once again, collecting just two hits through nine scoreless frames.
After a stellar start from Bobby Poyner, the Red Sox’s bullpen fell apart midgame, allowing eight runs to score over two innings. Boston now has lost five games in a row as the end of the season quickly approaches.
Boston falls to 76-70 with the loss while Toronto improves to 57-89.
Here’s how it all went down:
WORD OF THE GAME
*Sigh*
Just another dismal outing for the Sox.
ON THE BUMP
— Wednesday’ marked Poyner’s first major league start, and he excelled in the opener’s role.
The southpaw was lights out through two innings of work, pitching two perfect innings using just 35 pitches (25 of which were strikes) while striking out two. His ERA now sits at 7.88 though six appearances this season for the Sox.
— Trevor Kelley tossed a 1-2-3 third inning as well, but hit a snag in the fourth.
Rafael Devers just barely missed a catch along the third base line with one out in the inning, allowing Cavan Biggio to double. After Biggio stole third, Vladimir Guererro Jr. launched a fly ball deep to left, giving his teammate plenty of time to trot home for Toronto’s first run of the game.
Then, Rowdy Tellez struck again with a solo shot over the right field wall, making it 2-0 Jays.
After letting Randal Grichuk single during the next at-bat, Cora yanked Kelley from the game.
— Ryan Weber allowed runners to reach second and third in the fourth, but managed to escape the inning unscathed.
The righty returned to the mound for the fifth, but his luck didn’t necessarily improve.
After three consecutive one-out singles, Guerrero ripped a single of his own off Weber, driving in the Jays’ third and fourth runs of the game.
— Brian Johnson got the second out of the fifth inning for the Sox.
— Travis Lakins closed out the fifth for Boston, but not without running into some trouble himself.
Grichuk doubled off the very first pitch the righty dealt him, adding two more runs to the board. Teoscar Hernandez made it 8-0 Toronto with a two-run blast over the center field wall.
— Hector Velazquez pitched a bit of a messy sixth, allowing one hit and two walks although no runs crossed the plate.
— Mike Shawaryn tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning. He returned to the mound for the eighth, giving up a one-out walk before retiring the side.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— Devers and Brock Holt collected the Sox’s only two hits of the evening.
— Xander Bogaerts recorded Boston’s only walk of the night in the third inning.
— The Red Sox struck out nine times.
TWEET OF THE DAY
That was CLOSE.
UP NEXT
The Sox wrap up their three-game set against the Blue Jays on Thursday, with Jhoulys Chacin slated to take the mound for Boston in his first appearance against Toronto. First pitch from Rogers Centre is set for 7:07 p.m. ET.
