Blue Jays Defeat Red Sox 6-5
Posted August 12, 2010 4:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – On the verge of being swept again by the Boston Red Sox, the Toronto Blue Jays exorcised a pair of demons by rallying against closer Jonathan Papelbon for a rare victory against their AL East rivals.
Jose Bautista opened the ninth with a solo shot off starter John Lackey, while Adam Lind, Aaron Hill, Edwin Encarnacion and Fred Lewis did the rest in a 6-5 victory Thursday afternoon.
Papelbon came in having converted all 24 of his career save opportunities against the Blue Jays but his first pitch was hammered into the right-field corner by Vernon Wells for a double and the comeback was on from there.
Lind sent the next pitch up the middle to score Wells and make it a 5-4 game, before pinch-runner Dewayne Wise stole second and advanced to third when Hill singled off Papelbon’s left foot.
Papelbon (4-5) recovered to strike out Travis Snider before Encarnacion’s double down the left-field line tied things up 5-5. Pinch-hitter Lyle Overbay was then walked intentionally to bring up Lewis, who hit a fly ball to centre off Daniel Bard that was deep enough to score Hill.
Kevin Gregg (1-4) pitched the ninth for the win.
The stirring comeback before an elated crowd of 36,271 allowed the Blue Jays (60-54) to avoid a sweep and improve to 3-9 this season against the Red Sox (66-50). It also sent them off on their nine-game road trip in a much better frame of mind, particularly knowing that after stops in Anaheim and Oakland, three games at Fenway Park in a week’s time loomed.
This one never seemed in doubt for the Red Sox once they broke the ice against soft-throwing rookie left-hander Brad Mills.
A sacrifice fly by Victo Martinez and RBI single off the right-field wall by David Ortiz made it 2-0 in the third and the Blue Jays were climbing uphill the rest of the way, especially with Lackey dealing.
The Blue Jays pulled within one in the fourth when Bautista crossed on Lind’s double-play ball, but Mills gave that right back in the fifth on solo shots to light-hitting Jed Lowrie and Ortiz, who reached the 25-homer plateau for the seventh straight season.
That was all for Mills, who also failed to escape the fifth on Saturday when he was backed by Toronto’s eight-homer barrage in a 17-11 win over Tampa Bay. He was bound for triple-A Las Vegas after the game to make room for Marc Rzepczynski (0-1, 7.15), brought up to start Friday against the Angels as part of a rotation shuffle to get Brett Cecil and Brandon Morrow extra rest.
Mills had some success early by spinning over his 70 m.p.h. looping curveball and spotting a fastball that touched 86, but once the Red Sox got their timing against him, it was lights out. He gave up seven hits and two walks in 4 1-3 innings, though he did strike out seven.
Lackey was far tougher over his eight-plus innings, and was pulled from the game after Bautista ripped his 36th homer of the season leading off the ninth. Papelbon then came on to blow his sixth save of the season.
Prior to that Lackey was able to limit the damage whenever he was in trouble. Lind’s double play ball came with runners on the corners and nobody out, while Bautista also hit into a double play in the sixth in the same situation, allowing Lewis to score.
In the seventh, Lind opened the frame with a double, but Aaron Hill failed to move him over with a groundout to short before Lackey retired Snider and Encarnacion to strand the runner.
The Red Sox added another run in the eighth when Darnell McDonald’s RBI triple ended a scoreless streak of 21 1-3 innings for lefty Scott Downs.
Notes:Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay, who had the day off, shrugged off a report saying he had cleared waivers and was eligible to be dealt this month. “I think I’m more susceptible to the August thing more than the (July 31) trade deadline,” he said. “(But) you always get these stories and nothing really happens. The last couple of years I’ve been on top of it and it just doesn’t seem like anything happens, so I’m not even worrying about it.” … With seven 25-homer season, Ortiz joins Ted Williams (14) and Jim Rice (7) as the only Red Sox to accomplish the feat. Manny Ramirez and Mo Vaughn both had six.
