The Boston Red Sox looked as if they were going to drop their series to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Then J.D. Martinez happened.
With two outs in the top of the ninth and a man on, Martinez hit the go-ahead home run that eventually led to the 8-7 win at TD Ballpark. Boston remains in sole possession of first place in the American League East.
Boston was up 5-2 at one point, Toronto came back to lead 7-6 before the ninth inning unraveled in front of the Blue Jays.
With the win, the Red Sox moved to 27-18, while the Blue Jays fell to 23-19.
Here’s how it all went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Comeback.
That’s pretty self-explanatory.
ON THE BUMP
— Nick Pivetta ran into trouble early when back-to-back one-out doubles from Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made it a 1-0 game. Randal Grichuk had the third double of the inning for the 2-0 lead before the first came a close on a nice grab by Xander Bogaerts.
The Blue Jays got one back in the bottom of the second when Bichette drove in Marcus Semien on his second double of the night to cut into Boston’s lead, 5-3.
Pivetta ran into a bit of trouble in the fifth when he had runners on the corners with one out. Rafael Devers committed an error on a Teoscar Hernandez grounder that made it a 5-4 game before Cavan Biggio singled home Guerrero to tie things at 5-5.
Santiago Espinal did strike out to end the inning, but the damage was done, and so was Pivetta’s night.
— Hirokazu Sawamura had the sixth and gave up a leadoff triple to Danny Jensen before he was singled home by Jonathan Davis for the 6-5 lead.
An error by Michael Chavis eventually led to Davis scoring on a shallow single by Grichuk to give the Blue Jays a 7-5 edge and end Sawamura’s night.
— Darwinzon Hernandez came in and got the final out of the sixth.
The left-hander returned for the seventh and got two outs, but was done after giving up a walk to Davis.
— Phillips Valdez got out of the inning with a groundout.
The right-hander was back for the eighth and pitched a scoreless frame.
— Matt Barnes came in for the save and closed out the game.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— It didn’t take long for the Red Sox to grab the lead and get to Steven Matz, and they did it all with two outs in the top of the second.
Christian Vázquez and Hunter Renfroe hit back-to-back singles with two outs to bring Bobby Dalbec to the plate. The first baseman blasted a three-run shot to make give Boston its first lead of the night.
— Kiké Hernández extended the lead to 4-2 with a single to bring in Michael Chavis after he doubled. Alex Verdugo and Martinez accounted for the sixth and seventh straight hit in the inning. Martinez made it a 5-2 game with an RBI-single.
Devers struck out with the bases loaded to end the 20-plus minute inning.
— The Red Sox made it a bit interesting in the top half of the ninth with a Dalbec double and Chavis single to lead off the frame. The runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch with Verdugo at the dish.
The outfielder grounded into a fielder’s choice to make it a 7-6 game and bring Martinez to the plate. And boy, did he deliver.
Martinez sent a two-run shot to right field to give Boston its first lead since the second and eventually the win.
— Hernández, Martinez, Vázquez, Dalbec and Chavis all had two hits apiece.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Not too shabby.
UP NEXT
We have interleague play on deck. The Red Sox travel to Philadelphia to take on the Phillies beginning Friday. First pitch from Citizens Bank Park is set for 7:05 p.m. ET. Catch all the action on NESN with pregame starting at 6:30 p.m.
