Eighth-inning rally leads Blue Jays to win over Red Sox

The Toronto Blue Jays gave starter J.A. Happ the late-inning rally he deserved to beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3 at Fenway Park on Monday afternoon.

Kevin Pillar had another great game for the Jays (7-7), going 3-for-3 with a walk in his second game batting number eight in the lineup. He also made a diving catch in centre-field to save a run late in the game.

Happ lasted seven innings and a batter, allowing just four hits with one earned run. The lefty struck out four and walked only one, lowering his season ERA to 1.89.

His only blemish came in the second inning when Josh Rutledge doubled home Xander Bogaerts to give the Red Sox (6-6) an early lead.

Toronto’s offence finally awoke in the top of the eighth inning. After a Kevin Pillar infield single, Justin Smoak walk, and a wild pitch gave the Blue Jays runners on second and third, Michael Saunders brought Pillar across on a ground ball.

Walks to Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson loaded the bases for Edwin Encarnacion, who went down swinging to Craig Kimbrel. A bad miss for ball four in the next at-bat was Toronto’s saviour, though, with a Troy Tulowitzki walk bringing across the go-ahead run.

Russell Martin then worked a full count, fouling off multiple pitches on a 3-2 count before dumping a two-run single into right-field to move the Blue Jays ahead by three.

Brett Cecil picked up for Happ in the bottom of the inning with a runner on second, pitching a clean inning before handing off to Drew Storen for the ninth. With Roberto Osuna having pitched yesterday Storen picked up the save, but not before allowing two runs and making this one closer than it needed to be

Clay Buchholz was very strong in his start for the Red Sox, lasting 6.2 innings while allowing six hits and two walks. All four of Toronto’s runs were charged to Koji Uehara despite three of them plating when Craig Kimbrel was on the mound.