Blue Jays vs Red Sox : Ed-wing flying high in loss

R.A. Dickey was looking for a bounce back from his last outing against the Red Sox and ran into more issues right off the bat. After Dickey recorded 2 outs quickly, Xander Bogaerts started off a 2-out rally with a single to right. David Ortiz doubled on a laser to right which scored Bogaerts. A strikeout that led to a passed ball only led to more issues as Hanley Ramirez was able to reach base. Travis Shaw would make the Blue Jays pay as he doubled to centre. In the midst of the action Shaw was thrown out at third base on the 4-player relay from Kevin Pillar to Ryan Goins, Justin Smoak, and finally Josh Donaldson. The assist put an end to the 2 out rally.

Edwin Encarnacion led off the 2nd inning and on a full count he railed a pitch over the green monster in left. The solo homer was Edwin’s first parrot walk of the season. In the bottom of the inning the Sox would once again get a pair of runners on and capitalized for their 4th run on a Mookie Betts single. Dickey continued to battle but then when he allowed a few walks in the 5th it was time to go to the pen. Pat Venditte came on and shut down Brock Holt to escape the 5th. Venditte was allowed to start the 6th but allowed a pair of singles to start the inning. He was chased for Joe Biagini who was able to get a double play before allowing a single that scored a run for the Red Sox. This made the score 1-5 at the time.

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Leading off the 7th, Jose Bautista drew a 5 pitch walk from Rick Porcello. Porcello had been dealing and allowed just the one hit which was the Encarnacion homer for the only Jays run. Edwin proceeded to take the first pitch he saw from Porcello to deep left field for his second home run of the night. Edwin’s second homer of the game put the Blue Jays back in striking distance at a score of 3-5.

Jesse Chavez pitched a scoreless bottom of the 8th to keep the score close. The Jays hopes for the 9th laid with the top of the order. The issue was that the Jays mashers would have to go through Craig Kimbrel to get back into the game. Kimbrel cruised through Donaldson and Bautista but ran into trouble with Encarnacion. Edwin cracked his bat but floated a ball into no man’s land in shallow right field for a single. Kimbrel walked Troy Tulowitzki to put 2 runners on but then struck out Justin Smoak to end the game. Smoak struck out in every plate appearance for a total of 4 times.

“C+”. Dickey had a hard night in the cold in Boston. The knuckleball was hard to control and the Red Sox were sitting waiting for the right pitches. Dickey’s struggles continued as he walked 4 batters in just 4.2 innings of work. Dickey threw 106 pitches and 62 of them for strikes. He was only charged 2 earned runs but that was the plus to the performance. <span style=. . <strong>R.A. Dickey</strong>. STARTING PITCHING

RELIEF PITCHING . “A-”. The bullpen got some extra work due to how fast Dickey racked up 106 pitches and was taken out in the 5th inning. Only the one earned run was allowed by the bullpen and they kept the Jays in the game within striking distance. . . <strong>Pat Venditte, Joe Biagini, Jesse Chavez</strong>

“C”. Edwin looked like he has all of his swing timing down during this game. He rocked Porcello for 2 homers and supplied some much needed pop. Other than Edwin the Jays bats were dormant in the cool Boston air. Edwin recorded all of the Blue Jay offense. This included the 3 hits in the game the Jays logged in the hit column Friday night. . . Edwin Encarnacion. OFFENCE

MVJ – Edwin Encarnacion

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