Red Sox avoid sweep, beat the Blue Jays 6-3

The Toronto Blue Jays entered Sundays contest looking for a sweep of their division rivals the Boston Red Sox. The Blue Jays sent out knuckle baller R.A. Dickey to the mound. The Boston Red Sox trying to avoid a sweep countered with veteran hurler Clay Buchholz. Both pitchers have started off the season a little slow and looking for their 2nd win of the season.

The Red Sox started out the game with a lead off triple by Mookie Betts. He smashed a ball into right center field that Kevin Pillar almost made a highlight catch on. The ball dropped after Kevin hit the ground hard. Dustin Pedroia hit a ground ball to score Mookie from 3rd base. David Ortiz was issued a free pass on some knuckle balls that couldn’t quite find the zone. Hanley Ramirez hit into what should have been a double play. Devon Travis threw the ball away allowing Hanley to reach base. Pablo Sandoval hit a two out double to right field to keep the inning alive. Mike Napoli hit a 3 run home run to clear the bases. Boston came out of the gates running to take an early 4-0 lead in the 1st inning.

In the bottom of the 1st inning Devon Travis started out the game with a lead off walk. Josh Donaldson hit a ground ball to 3rd base that was turned into a close double play. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion were issued back to back walks. Kevin Pillar came up to bat with two runners on base and two outs. Kevin hit a ground ball to 3rd allowing Buchholz to escape the inning issuing three walks without allowing any to score.

Boston continued to make contact with the knuckle ball. In the 2nd inning Sandy Leon hit a single to right field. Mookie Betts reached on a fielders choice beating out a double play. Dustin Pedroia hit a single to center field just over the head of Devon Travis. R.A. Dickey got out of the jam by getting David Ortiz to ground out.

Chris Colabello hit a lead off single in the bottom of the 2nd. Ezequiel Carrera struck out looking at a tough slider that just hit the inside corner. Josh Thole ground into an inning ending double play.

Edwin Encarnacion hit a bloop one out base hit in the bottom of the 4th inning. Edwin advanced to 2nd base on a ground ball by Kevin Pillar. Chris Colabello hit a two out single to center field to score Edwin Encarnacion from 2nd base. The shutout was broken giving the Red Sox a 4-1 lead.

After getting into a groove R.A. Dickey finally gave up a hit. Hanley Ramirez hit a hard single to left center field. Pablo Sandoval followed that up with a long home run to center field giving the Red Sox a 6-1 lead.

Devon Travis hit a solid double to right field in the bottom of the 5th. Josh Donaldson followed that up with a double into the gap in left center field scoring the runner on 2nd base. Jose Bautista hit a ground ball to end the inning but the Jays picked up another run making it a 6-2 ball game.

In the bottom of the 6th, Chris Colabello hit a two out single to right field but was stranded at first base.

Ryan Tepera came in to pitch for R.A. Dickey marking the end of the afternoon for R.A. who was able to go 6 innings throwing 103 pitches. Ryan threw an uneventful 1-2-3 inning.

Josh Thole had a bloop hit bounce over the right fielders head to give him a lead off double in the bottom of the 7th. Ryan Goins advanced the runner grounding out to the fight side of the diamond. After that play John Farrell came out to end Clay Buchholz afternoon. Devon Travis hit a ground ball to the shortstop allowing the run to score. Josh Donaldson flew out to right field ending the inning but the lead was shortened to 6-3.

Jose Bautista his a lead off single in the bottom of the 8th inning. Edwin Encarnacion hit into a double play to erase the base runner.

Game Notes:

• Chris Colabello was able to keep his streak going. Much like last season he is scorching hot to start out his season. He picked up another 3 hits raising his average to .556.
• R.A. Dickey gave up 2 more home runs. That is an issue that hopefully can get resolved. His line for the afternoon is not pretty with 6 IP, 6 runs on 7 hits.
• Ryan Tepera made his MLB debut. He pitched 2 innings without giving up a hit.
• The offense hit into 3 double plays. They need to try and cut down on double plays to really get rallies going.
• Kevin Pillar even though the ball dropped once again showed his athleticism in the outfield. He dropped the ball after hitting the ground while attempting to make a diving catch. Despite dropping it, he had no business even coming close to making a play on the ball.

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