The Blue Jays marked the first team this season to tag the Boston Red Sox for three (or more) home runs in a game as Toronto earned a 7-2 win at Fenway Park on Saturday.
Toronto, though, actually recorded five home runs on the contest, half of their 10 hits. Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta allowed four himself, three of which came in the fifth inning, before Brandon Workman allowed one in the ninth.
With budding superstar and MVP candidate Vlad Guerrero Jr. leading the way, the Blue Jays offense certainly looked like one of the better groups in the American League on Saturday.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora explained what makes them so tough to go up against.
“They put good swings from the get-go. They were very aggressive,” Cora said on a postgame video conference. “They put good swings the whole afternoon. They’re a tough matchup. They’re a good offensive club. They’re very aggressive on first pitches and they square some balls up.”
Pivetta took ownership for his mistakes that led to Toronto homers. The first he allowed was a fastball over the middle to Guerrero, the second (Cavan Biggio in the fifth) came on a hanging curveball, the third (Marcus Semien in the fifth) was on a hanging slider and the fourth (Bo Bichette’s 468-foot shot in the fifth) was again a hanging curveball.
“It comes down to every home run I gave up I miss-located the pitch or hung the pitch,” Pivetta said on a video conference. “They’re a good group of guys. They hit mistakes. At the end of the day there’s still a lot of room to get ahead of those guys and do a really good job. They put some good swings on some balls.”
The Red Sox will get to see them again Sunday with the third game of the four-game set scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET at Fenway Park. You can watch it live on NESN.
